


A Wish for Wisdom

by ellf



Series: Building Faith [6]
Category: The Dresden Files - All Media Types, The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Conventions, F/F, F/M, Gen, Movie monsters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-01-31 11:01:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 48
Words: 162,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12680547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellf/pseuds/ellf
Summary: Faith and Molly have returned to Chicago after being God knows where, and they're getting right back in the swing of things.   Splattercon!!! seems safe enough, but something rings wrong about that to Faith.   It definitely doesn't help for them to get a call from Lara Raith just before.  Can the twins have a good time when faced with movie monsters, faeries, old ones, and worse?  (Book 3 of Building Faith)





	1. Chapter One

“Molly, you know I love you, but there’s such a thing as too much,” I said as I looked over my sister and what she’d had planned to do. She stood over the sink with two bottles of hair dye, clearly intending on dying her hair. Given the natural hair color that the two of us shared, it was really easy to dye and have the colors stick. My main issue was less the fact that she was dying it and more the fact the colors she chose. “I mean, blue dye? Are you trying to look off?”

“Blue and _pink_ dye, Fai. Blue and pink.” Molly corrected me, slightly jutting her lower lip out such that I could see the piercing. She tended to do that a lot since she got the piercing; I think she just like showing it off. She pulled her tank top down so that it would stop riding up her midriff. “And it’ll look cool.”

“You’ll look like you have cotton candy on your head,” I said. “But, your hair is yours.”

“You’re one to talk.” Molly nudged me playfully. “I’ve seen the black dye you bought.”

“That’s different. Mine’s washable.” I nudged her back, giving a mock glare. “It’s for the costume.”

“And mine is for Nelson,” Molly said, and I shook my head. Nelson Lenhardt was Molly’s current boyfriend of about four months. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the guy, but sometimes he and his preferences could get a little crazy. Well, there’s also how Molly reacts to those preferences, but of course, I’m one to talk. When I dated Becca… well, that was a couple years ago now. “Now are you going to help me with it or not? I don’t want to get any dye on the tank top.”

“Probably be easier if you took it off then.” I moved to grab the shirt when she finished pulling it off. I put her shirt to the side, and I removed my own clothing that I didn’t want ruined by the dye. “So, how do you want this done exactly?”

“Half pink, half blue. You can pick the sides Fai; you know what looks good.” Molly gave me a hug, and I nodded. The two of us moved over to the sink proper, and I leaned her head back under the faucet to help get the dye ready.

Following the instructions on the box, I managed to get my sister’s hair the way she wanted it, even if I didn’t agree with the colors she chose. I even trimmed her hair down so that it framed her face in the way she wanted. I followed the tips of her hair down around her face, eyeing her two nose rings, one in each nostril, her eyebrow ring and her lip stud. The hair ended at the top of the serpent-shaped tattoo on her neck, which I followed down to the tribal tattoo that ran from her neck to her stomach, which concealed several runic characters within it. Honestly, if one didn’t know where to look, they wouldn’t even be visible. I knew because I had the same tattoo, mirrored except for the characters. The characters were carefully identical, not mirrored at all. Of course, someone looking probably wouldn’t even be able to spot them unless they knew what they were looking for, but that really was most of the point. I had some piercings myself, but not nearly as many as my sister: only my ears and belly button were pierced.

“So, what do you think?” I asked my sister as I helped her up, brushing her hair out. I spun her so she could look in the mirror.

“Perfect. Now all we have to do is get dressed before the boys show up,” Molly said, reminding me once more that this was to be a _double_ date at lunch today. “Now, I picked some clothes out for you. They’re not quite as… daring… as mine are, but they’ll look good on you, emphasize what should be emphasized and all.”

“I… Fine, okay.” I shook my head. I trusted Molly’s judgment on clothing. She usually was right when it came to that, and I _did_ want to make a good impression today, no matter where we were going. Molly took my arm and led me into our bedroom.

Now I said our bedroom, but really, it was more like our everything room. We lived in a ground-floor studio apartment that was in a building refurbished from the prohibition era. The bed that Molly and I shared took up the bulk of the living area, but we kept an area near the kitchen for a small table with four chairs, a vanity on the wall that had most of our makeup and Molly’s and my spare piercings. The dining room table had several notebooks on it along with two leather-bound tomes and four paperback novels, two of them _Harry Potter_ , and the other two were _Doctor Who_ novels. We had no electric lighting in the house, save for in the bathroom, just a number of candles lining the kitchen counter, either side of the vanity, along with a few scented candles on our side tables.

Molly had laid out on my side of the bed a midriff-baring white tank top, similar to the one she had on, a navy blue bolero jacket, mesh stockings, and a navy blue silk skirt that looked like it would probably stop about mid-thigh. Okay, yeah. I supposed I could get into something like that. I started getting dressed.

Molly’s own outfit was a little more risqué. Her dark black skirt was made of a gauzy material and was artfully torn in several places. She wore a pair of fishnet tights that also were torn in carefully chosen places. Her own bolero jacket was black, matching her skirt, and she too wore the same tank top. It was a little liberating to be dressed like this. Still.

“If Mom sees us like this, out of the house or not, she’ll find a way to ground us until we’re thirty,” I said as I made my way over to the vanity to apply my makeup.

“Then we’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Molly said, sitting next to me to do her own makeup. She reached for black lipstick as I reached for some blue. Given our outfits, I figured it would probably be best to color coordinate. “Besides, we don’t need to go visit until Tuesday.”

“She or Daddy will try to talk us into coming back again, won’t they?” I closed my eyes as I applied my mascara. The two of us had left the house a year and a half ago. It was my fault, mostly. I didn’t want to have our family be put in danger by my presence. I was afraid that just by being there, we’d draw something to our family. Daddy might have been a Knight, but he couldn’t be there at all times, nor could we, for that matter. If, God forbid, something was to happen… I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. It was easier to protect ourselves alone here, with the wards we’d set on the apartment. They weren’t quite as… explosive as Harry’s, but they’d keep unwanted supernatural nasties out long enough for us to make our choice to leave or stay and fight.

“Maybe, but they know that we’re not ready yet,” Molly said, implying that someday we might be. She could be right about that, but right now? Right now I know I wasn’t, and Molly felt similarly. Maybe if we were able to get something set up properly on the house, but that wasn’t likely to happen just yet. “And if they lecture me one more time about Nelson…”

“Hey, the guy’s nice enough, but he does have his issues,” I said, standing from the vanity and walking to the dresser. “But most have been dealt with. You just have to give them time to adjust. It’s not like he’s any older than Drew.”

“Yeah, true,” Molly said, and she wrapped an arm around me, letting me lean my head against her shoulder. “Speaking of, are you going to be okay with this?”

“I… We’ve been talking. It’s only lunch. It’s not like we’re going to be going anywhere afterward beyond what we need to do to help Sandy,” I said, wincing slightly. Drew was the primary reason that Molly and I returned to Chicago eight months ago. He’d been a good friend for a long while, and for a very brief time before we left, Drew was my boyfriend. Yeah, for all of two days, he’d been… and then he got taken, lost his arm, and… Fuck, it was my fault. I wouldn’t cry though. We’d worked past some of that. “This weekend should be fun.”

“I’ve seen your costume,” Molly said.

“ _Costumes_. I’m doing a different one Saturday and Sunday. Today I’ll do the button, but tomorrow I’m going to run around in the shirt,” I said, and then when a knock came on our apartment front door, I smiled. Molly and I both could feel the two presences beyond our door, easily familiar. Neither twigged the wards, meaning they weren’t there for a hostile reason. One was trying to force himself to be relaxed, while the other was a little nervous, but… something felt off. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I hoped it wasn’t what I thought it was; Nelson was supposed to be doing better. “They’re here, Moll.”

“Yeah, I know.” She squeezed me another time and then removed her arm, heading to answer the door. I stepped up behind her, straightening my own shirt out. It was time to face the music. I watched as Molly unlocked our wards and opened the door, revealing the two men who had come knocking.

On the right stood Nelson Lenhardt, my sister’s current boyfriend. He stood about an inch or two taller than us with a long narrow face and high, sharp cheekbones. He was ruggedly lean, with the athleticism that came from teaching martial arts. His dark hair was tossed in that just out of bed look that I knew had to have taken hours to get just right with the gel in it. I had to raise my eyebrow at what he wore: black chinos and a T-shirt with a logo that clearly read SPLATTERCON!!! on it. A T-shirt to a lunch date seemed off. His square silver-rimmed glasses were just things he needed though. He smiled when the door opened to Molly, and she did the same, but my attention was more drawn toward the other man there.

Andrew Warren, Drew to his friends, stood in the doorway at about the same height to Nelson, but that’s where their similarities ended. Forgetting the obvious of their skin tone, Drew’s chocolate compared to Nelson’s cream, Drew had broader shoulders and was more thickly built than Nelson. His hair had been buzzed down recently, but not completely shaved off, and he had the beginnings of a groomed goatee growing. He wore jeans and a dark polo shirt with long sleeves. I suppressed a wince when I spotted the silvered hand of his prosthetic poking out the left sleeve, and I tried not to notice the way it hung to the side. He also had a small messenger bag over his left shoulder. A smile came to his own face and he stepped inside, walking straight to me and wrapping me in a hug.

“You look gorgeous today, Fai,” he whispered in my ear while hugging me, using both his arms.

“You look pretty good yourself.” I returned the hug and gave a sharp squeeze before backing off slightly. “So, where are we grabbing lunch?”

“Well, I’m the one driving,” Drew said. “So we’re going to grab some pizza.”

“Can’t be too long.” Nelson looked over at us. “As much as I might want to, I’m supposed to meet up with Sandy around two to talk with Mr. Pell.”

“If we take too long, I’ll call you a cab,” Drew said, wrapping his right arm around me so I could lean into him.

“We can get going now,” Molly said, and I nodded in agreement.

“Actually, before you do, I want to do something first.” Drew reached into his messenger bag and pulled out a Polaroid camera. “I want a good picture of the two of you. Come on girls, give us a pose.”

I shook my head in disbelief, but I stepped away from him. Molly immediately wrapped her arms around me, peeking over my shoulder, and I jokingly held up three fingers in the West Side salute, smirking at the camera. The flash went off, and the four of us were on our way out. I locked up the apartment as we left, triggering the wards to be on, and we made our way out of the apartment building to where Drew parked the Ex Machina.

The Ex Machina was Drew’s baby, and I was impressed that he still managed to drive the ocean-blue ’76 Mustang convertible around with his prosthetic. Still, he wasn’t one to let his disability keep him down, and he still managed to drive just fine. No, my Drew was a survivor, strong. Stronger than me at times. Never mind.

We piled into the Ex Machina, Nelson and Molly in back with me in the passenger seat up front. It really didn’t take us long to get to the restaurant in question, a Chicago-style place near the hotel that the convention was being held at. The location was purely for Nelson’s benefit, I was certain. We managed to get a table for all of us pretty quickly. Conversation went for the usual topics at first: how school was going for Drew, work for Nelson, and the bit of metalwork and minor crafts that Molly and I did that we sold online through a dealer. No magic was brought up, primarily because Nelson wasn’t quite close enough yet, but other topics and questions were fine. The answers to the questions weren’t really meaningless, but they didn’t really matter much in the grand scheme of things. What mattered most was the togetherness, the camaraderie that we felt. We liked spending time together, and we liked having fun. Somehow the conversation got turned toward the convention’s topics.

“… no way that _Harvest_ is scarier than _Hammerhands_ , Faith. The dude has sledgehammers for hands and beats the shit out of people.”

“Right, I’m not going to speak to a crazy person. Darby Crane’s work is _amazing_. Scares the daylights out of me. The Scarecrow is far more frightening,” I said, looking at anyone but Nelson. My gaze actually latched onto Drew’s eyes for a second before switching to a safer position, his nose. “Drew knows.”

“Hey, I’m not getting involved. I know my horror movie tropes. Guess who gets killed first.” Drew waved his prosthetic up for a second. “And I’ve got the double whammy. Both your baddies are scary, but I’ve always been partial to _Suburban Slasher_.”

“Really?” I gave Drew a look of mock betrayal. “That Ghostface wannabe?”

“Hey, give him a break, Fai.” Molly grinned. “It’s not like he said he liked _Child’s Play_.”

“Besides. _Suburban Slasher_ is older,” Nelson said. “Classic horror, not like _Scream_. I mean, they even give it a callout in that movie.”

I threw up my hands in defeat. “At least I convinced Sandy to show some international horror as well.”

“Yeah, that European and Asian stuff’s scary shit,” Nelson said.

“And it gives her an excuse to cosplay,” Molly said with a grin.

“Ah, she’d do it anyway,” Drew said.

“Oh, is this gang-up on Faith day?” I asked, laughing. “But yeah, two days of the con. I’ve got them picked out. Technically they’re the same character, just different outfits and different times.”

“Time.” Nelson blinked and looked at his watch, paling slightly. “Ah, crap. I’ve got to run.”

Molly frowned. “Already?”

“Yeah, Sandy needs me there to talk with Pell,” Nelson said, standing up. He made his way over to Molly’s chair and wrapped her in a hug. “I’ll just be at the convention center, looking some things over for security.”

I shook my head and tried to tune out Molly’s reply as much as I could. I could feel both of their reactions to the kiss they shared, which was clearly more intense on Nelson’s side of the equation than Molly’s, but I knew my sister cared. She just had some issues she didn’t want to bring up with him. After breaking the kiss, Nelson left some money on the table to help pay for the meal, and he left the restaurant, presumably to walk to the convention center from here.

“Well, guess that means the date part of this is over,” Drew said, giving my hand a squeeze with his warm one.

“Oh, don’t let me stop—”

“Molly,” I said, cutting my sister off. “It’s not fair to you.”

“Besides,” Drew said. “You’re my friend too, Molly. I’m not going to expect you to leave us be when the double date was your idea to begin with.”

“Yeah but—” Molly and I stiffened, turning our attention toward the front of the restaurant. A beautiful woman who wouldn’t look out of place in a fashion magazine or an adult one had walked in the door. Her hair was dark, curling and glossy, so black it almost looked blue in the highlights. Her skin was the kind of gorgeously creamy that I could only hope to have my own get on my best of days. She had a narrow face with deep, pink, kissable lips that were only helped by the gorgeousness of her stormy grey eyes with flecks of periwinkle. She wore a strapless black bodycon dress, probably made by some European designer with an unpronounceable name, but one thing was certain: it flattered all of her curves. I could taste her hunger on the air the moment she stepped in, and Molly and I instinctively touched, moving around so we were between Drew and the entrance.

How she found out we were here was beyond us, but she did, and when she spotted the three of us at our table, a smile came to those perfect lips and she approached. She took a seat at the chair recently emptied by Nelson.

“The Carpenter twins and Andrew Warren,” she said, the grin on her lips that of a practiced predator. “It’s good to see the three of you.”

“ _Lara_ ,” we acknowledged, carefully. “What do you want?”

We weren’t sure it was possible, but her look became even more predatory as her teeth bared slightly. “I have a mission for the three of you.”

“A mission?” Drew asked, his voice a little dreamy. We’d have to make sure that he snapped out of it after she was gone, but the answer to this question was one we suspected we knew the answer to.

“As Venatori.”

Damn it.


	2. Chapter Two

The Venatori. Lovely. The Venatori are a group of people who fight to banish the Old Ones to Oblivion by erasing all sorts of mortal awareness of them. Their existence is meant to be a secret because simply knowing about one of these beings is enough to be able to give it the ability to affect the material plane. Most of the Old Ones are long-forgotten gods, demons or whatever, the once rulers of the mortal world that were cast out, locked away from reality. If we can eliminate every last reference to one of them, they will be consigned to Oblivion, forever to wither away in obscurity. Yes. We.

Drew and the two of us managed to unintentionally be drafted into the Oblivion War a little over three years ago, and the two other members of our cell that we know of are both vampires, albeit of the White Court.

Lara Raith, like her younger brother, is a White Court vampire. They both induce and feed upon emotion, and in the case of House Raith, the emotion is lust. They’re basically one of the origins of the succubus and incubus myth. We knew from experience that being fed upon by a White Court vampire feels amazing, even for a little bit rather than a full feeding. It would be addicting to keep going. Additionally, Lara is probably one of the most ruthless women that we know of on the planet. Unlike her younger brother, she revels in being a vampire, enjoys feeding her Hunger, and wishes to consolidate her power. She is extremely adept at using catspaws to get her way.

Lara also happened to be the leader of our cell. She was the source of most of the missions that we’d been on for the Venatori since we joined, usually directing us to destroy specific books in their various locations. Honestly, while we agreed with the general goal of the group, we still disliked destroying knowledge sources, and we disliked having to work with Lara Raith to do it, no matter how attractive she was. She knew we’d do the work though, which was why she kept coming to us.

Discreetly, we looked around the restaurant while keeping an eye on the vampire in front of us. Nobody appeared to be looking directly at us, despite the fact that Lara freaking Raith sat at our table. We didn’t know that she had the control over her hunger to not draw attention to herself, but sure enough, everyone seemed to be more paying attention to their food than to the table at hand.

“You can quit looking around now,” Lara said with a lilt to her tone. We could feel her doing something, but we couldn’t quite tell what. “You’ll draw the very attention that we’re trying to avoid here...”

“You said something about a mission?” we asked, turning our attention fully onto the vampire, avoiding looking in her eyes. Despite her monstrous status, we knew that if we locked eyes with her, we would be drawn into a soulgaze. After all, White Court vampires were still human, just with some extras that a normal person wouldn’t have. “What is the target, and how should we be dealing with it?”

Lara laughed, and damn if it didn’t sound like bells. The woman made evil laughter sexy, and that just wasn’t right. “Come now, I’m not so scary that you should need that sort of defense against me. Despite the three of you being virgins, I have been good, have I not?”

We gave the White Court vampire a flat look. Who did she think she was fooling with that virginity comment? Just because part of us wanted to tear off our clo—stupid sexy vampire. We allowed ourselves to briefly look at her eyes. They’d lost most of the periwinkle blue that normally was in them, instead they were far more silver. Lara was the most experienced White Court vampire we knew of, save for her father whom we never wanted to meet. She’d be able to control herself.

“You said a mission.” We crossed our arms, deciding to focus on the reason she was here and ignoring her hunger. We allowed a glance at Drew who seemed a little too focused on Lara’s cleavage than what she was saying. We’d need to snap him out of that later. “What do you have?”

“Truthfully? Not a lot.” Lara reached into the bag she’d carried with her, pulling out a manila folder. She laid the folder down on the table and slid it over to us. “I don’t have a precise location for you, nor do I have a description. I just have information passed to me from an unorthodox source.”

We flipped open the folder and started to read through it while looking to Lara. Inside the folder were two notes in handwriting that we couldn’t identify. Additionally, there was a map behind it. We looked to the notes first. The first note appeared to be written entirely in Cyrillic.

“Oh, to have Sanya here…” we murmured.

“Hmm?” Lara cocked her head, and we carefully looked up at her. The Knight of Hope was something that _wasn’t_ her business. While we were allied when it came to the case of dealing with those whom we hunted, Lara still was White Court with her own goals and motivations. Not all of them were pure, and we were pretty sure the reason she was even involved with the Venatori in the first place was more out of preservation of food than any real desire to protect the innocent. While the ends were similar, the motivations and approaches used by her couldn’t be trusted further than we could throw her without magic.

The second note was about the same length as the first, written in English. It probably was a translation of the first note. It appeared to detail a source of Old One influence gaining traction within the confines of our city. A few words were transliterated from Cyrillic to Latin lettering, but they didn’t make any more sense in letters we could read. Oh, there was a date range too. Within the course of the next few days, it looked like. Damnit.

“So, there’s Old One influence showing up soon,” we said for Drew’s benefit and to confirm with our lovely benefactor. We kept our voices low without slipping into whispers so as to not have them carry. “But we don’t know where beyond _Chicago_ , and we don’t know how because if we did, it’d make it easier for them to influence us, correct?”

“Correct.” Lara dipped her head, and the vampire was doing that on purpose. We didn’t mean to look right there, but she was drawing our attention to it. Bitch. “Well, mostly correct. We did manage to narrow it down to within a specific set of city blocks.”

“Okay, how exactly did this unorthodox source get this information? Usually it’s more concrete than this. Last time you had the exact location of the book and what needed to be done to it.” Oh, now Drew decided to pay attention. Good. He needed to focus rather than staring at the sexy porn star vampire that sat in front of us.

“That is between my source and I,” Lara said, gesturing at the folder. A little bit of… was that pride peeking through her hunger? She had to have fed already today, or she had the control of a saint. Odds were, it was the former. “Perhaps you might find out if you are successful, and perhaps you might be rewarded in other ways.”

“And why us?” we asked, keeping our eyes at her face rather than more interesting areas that she was showing. “We’ve been back in Chicago for eight months, and we haven’t been involved in anything majorly supernatural beyond our own personal training in the interim, why choose us?”

“Because when you need to find something in this city, there is one person you go to,” Lara said, and we winced. We didn’t really want to get into it, but a part of us was really disappointed with the way that had turned out. “Since going to that person is out of the question, it makes sense to go to his apprentices instead. The two of you were trained by Harry Dresden, and he’s managed to find out very much on less than what I gave you.”

“What about me?” Drew asked, and we carefully avoided looking at his prosthetic. Did we really want to get him further involved into this sort of thing?

“You had the misfortune of being here,” Lara said. “And you are their support. Simple as that. Your mission is to investigate the source of this influence, identify it and abrogate it by any means necessary.”

We grimaced. Any means necessary encompassed quite a lot more than we were comfortable pulling off most of the time. Hell, we weren’t even eighteen yet, no matter what our IDs said. Still. We had a what, a general when, and a general where, but we were missing a who, a why and a how. Additionally, our current where was _too_ general. We needed to be able to narrow it down somehow. We’d probably need to start with the who though. There was only one group that we knew directly of from experience that would want to draw upon Old One influence for their own gain: The Stygian Sisterhood. We were sure there probably were other groups, but that was the one we knew.

We needed to ask her. “Do you think the Sty—”

“None of my informants indicated that they were in town,” Lara said, cutting us off, clearly not wanting to have us say more. “But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a chance that they are the source. The issue will be dealt with either way.”

Okay. That wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for with the question, but it likely meant that we wouldn’t have to deal with anyone like Cecelia had been if they weren’t involved. We’d do what was necessary if we had to, but we wouldn’t like it. At any rate, we still needed to know _where_ the events were likely to happen. “Wh—”

“There _is_ a map in the folder, girls, but to save you time, I can tell you,” Lara said. “Our secondary source managed to narrow it down for us to a specific city block that has only one street address. 9300 Bryn Mawr Ave is the most likely place that the influence will make itself known.”

In a single movement, Drew and we both looked out the front of the restaurant and then back to Lara. A smile played itself on her lips.

“Oh, you were planning on attending that anyway,” Lara laughed. “Well, I suppose it wouldn’t do for you to become complacent while you enjoyed the convention.”

“You knew about the Con?” Drew asked, and we placed a hand on his shoulder. He wrapped his right arm around one of us, and we leaned into him. We needed to present a united front here.

“The art of making movies where people get slashed up and die… I never managed to understand the appeal,” Lara said, smiling. This probably would have been the point where a quip about her having a body for pornography would have come if we were another person, but instead we left it at that.

We shrugged. “Fear can make a moviegoer appreciate life more. Plus, it’s a little more socially acceptable than your family’s genre of storytelling.” Well, at least we can say we didn’t exactly lash out at her directly. We were professional enough not to.

Lara snorted. “Mortals.” She shook her head. “I will never understand the American people’s taboos over something as common as sex, but I will deal with it. You have your mission, and you know where to go now. I shall be watching your progress. Perhaps I shall see you later. Do be careful.”

Lara stood up, and she dropped two hundred dollar bills on the table. She then turned and left the restaurant.

We breathed a sigh of relief when she was out of sight, but we looked down at the manila folder and the map that laid within it. We pulled the map out and unfurled it. the map of Chicago clearly had some markings on it already, likely from whomever had the map previously, but what drew our interest primarily was the location. Just as Lara had claimed.

It was the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, the hotel and convention center that SplatterCon!!! was being held at. Because of course it was. Damn it.


	3. Chapter Three

think about and a bunch to determine, but we needed to get on our way. Old One influence at SplatterCon!!!… it wasn’t something that we wanted to have happen, not to Sandy. If this convention got screwed up for whatever reason, there was the chance it wouldn’t happen again, and that was unthinkable.

“So,” Drew said as he started the car. “What’s the plan?”

“Well, we obviously need to get over to the convention center,” I said, making sure my seatbelt was buckled. I could feel Molly doing the same.

“The two of you going to be alright among all those people?” Drew looked in the rear view mirror. “I mean; I know the two of you have been a bit more sensitive since you got back.”

“We should be fine, Drew,” Molly said, her eyes flicking out the window. Though our empathic abilities were stronger, more sensitive, we’d gotten better at shielding ourselves as well. We wouldn’t freeze up if it came to it. “We promised Sandy we’d help out, and that’s what we’ll do.”

“We just have another thing to keep an eye out for.” I stretched, and when I felt Drew glance toward me, I couldn’t help the smile that came to my face. “Not like I was expecting the peace to last through this.”

“Timing is everything, I suppose.” Drew turned into the hotel’s parking lot, and he flashed his staff ID to the guard. It really didn’t take all that long to find a parking space after that, and the three of us were on our way inside.

SplatterCon!!! hadn’t yet kicked into full gear, but already the hotel had started to become populated by a smattering of cosplayers and fans of all sorts. More people would be coming, closer to the con’s start time at four. About a quarter of the ones already here were staff. Molly and I had helped to set up several of the tables and decorations that were arranged throughout the entry atrium and the ones that decorated the halls that led to the panel rooms. Sure, normally the rooms being used for those panels would be used as combination ball- and dining rooms, but they also had those foldable partitions that could be used for breaking the larger rooms into smaller ones to be used for the various panels that we had going.

The convention itself had been the brainchild of Sandra Marling, a person who had been mostly an acquaintance we knew through Heroes, Villains and Bystanders for a while, but she’d become much more than that over the past fifteen months. She’d helped us out when we needed to leave Chicago for a bit, and additionally, she was a big part of why Molly and I were able to live on our own now. With the two of us being functionally unable to operate a computer due to our magic, we needed someone to be a go-between for selling the items we worked on. Sandy did all of that for us, and in exchange, she got a cut of the profits and some personal favors, which included help on this convention. Why someone would want to mess it up was beyond me.

  


The three of us approached the check-in desk, which currently was only manned by one person, Sandy herself. Sandra Marling was a fairly attractive brunette in her early forties, and she wore a black T-Shirt with the SplatterCon!!! logo prominently displayed on it. She wore only the barest minimum of makeup, which showed with her smile.

“Hey Sandy,” I said as we got close. “I thought you were supposed to be meeting with Nelson and Mr. Pell.”

“Yeah, we did that already. Clark’s looking around the center, admiring the décor. We’ve managed to hammer out a showing schedule.” I could feel how tired she was, but there was some joy there. She must have been proud of how things were shaping up.

“So he’s liking the theming then,” Molly smiled. “That’s great. Where’d Nelson go?”

“I believe that he’s coordinating patrols with other members of the security team. Our liaison from the Police Department should be arriving soon, and Nelson should meet up with who they send then.”

“Do you know who’s being sent?” Drew asked, wrapping his good arm around me. “Or is it going to just be some random officer?”

“I believe I was told that it was going to be an Officer Rawlins.” Sandra smiled at Drew. Oh yes, that was definitely some pride in there along with some happiness. Maybe Sandy was happy that Drew and I were growing close again. “Do you recognize the name, Andrew?”

“I do,” I said. “If it’s Henry Rawlins. I don’t know if there are any others on the Force, but I met the man last year. Good cop. Anything you need us to do right now?”

“If you could do a quick once-over of the panel rooms, make sure that all the chairs and screens are set properly, that would be helpful. Other staff members should have had some things set up already, but I trust your eyes. Plus, I’d like you to check over your sculpture in Room C, Faith. I think it looks good, but I heard some clanging when it was placed earlier. You’d know better than I would if it’s the way it’s supposed to be displayed.” Sandra gestured down one of the halls before pulling out a small box from under the table. “Oh, and don’t forget to take your buttons since you aren’t wearing the staff shirts.”

Molly and I nodded, followed shortly by Drew, and we each clipped a black button emblazoned with the Con’s logo in red onto our clothing. For Molly and I, we pinned the button to our bolero jackets on opposite sides, and Drew pinned his on his polo shirt where a pocket would go on a more formal version. The buttons identified us as staffers for the convention.

“One more thing,” Sandy said. “If you see Rosanna or Andrea, please direct them up here. They’re scheduled to help with registration.”

“Yeah, we can do that.” I walked around the registration table and gave Sandy a hug. She might not really have needed it, but I knew that the older woman appreciated the gesture. “I’ll have Rosie grab you some coffee too when I see her. Along with water for herself.”

“Yes. She shouldn’t really need reminders in her condition…”

“But it’s Rosie,” Drew interjected. “Girl’s a bit of a scatterbrain at the best of times.”

“She’s gotten better,” Molly said defensively.

“I’ll remind her,” I said, giving a shrug. I liked Rosie, but Drew was right. “She listens to me. If not, I’ll tell Ken, and _he’ll_ remind her. Of course, with Drea coming with her, I think that all the drinks will be fine. See you later, Sandy.”

“Later.”

We waved to Sandy and started down the convention hall, intent on checking the layout and décor for ourselves. Molly, Drew and I separated so we could cover more ground. The general layout wasn’t really any different than other conventions I’d been to, and the Hyatt more or less knew the score with Anime Midwest an annual event at the hotel. The divided panel rooms were set up properly, but given the theme of SplatterCon!!!, each room had its own little quirks. In a room that was to be dedicated to classic slasher films, striped paper alternating red and black lined the entrance, and a hockey mask hung on one of the walls below a piece of artwork that Sandra found fitting for the room. Another room was dedicated to zombies and had bio-hazard signs posted on the walls next to another piece of artwork, depicting what appeared to be a zombie horde. The chairs in each of the rooms were aligned for optimal viewing, and the screens were set.

I carefully avoided all electronics related to the speakers and showing the various films that were planned. I didn’t want to mess with it, so I kept myself as calm as I could and didn’t use any active spells. Still, it looked like everyone had done a good job of setting everything up. These halls would be full of people, nearly three thousand over the course of the weekend, and the convention would be a major success. Sandy had managed to get several good people working for her, including Drew, Molly, and I.

Now, if only I knew exactly what I was looking for. None of the rooms I’d ducked into thus far had any source of magical energies in them beyond myself and the natural ambient energy that was more or less everywhere. So whatever the Old One influence was on the area, it either wasn’t active yet, or it didn’t really exist here. I wasn’t entirely sure which one I preferred more. Actually, that’s not really true. If it was the latter, and Lara was messing with us, we wouldn’t be dealing with anything Venatori-related. That was the preferable choice, of course. Nobody’s lives would be in danger. From that, anyway.

As I ducked into the room marked “C,” I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face as I saw where my sculpture had been set up. Three months ago, Sandy had commissioned a tribute to horror sculpture from me along with some varied crafts to go around from Molly. It had taken me three weeks to design and gather the materials for the sculpture, and then it had taken an additional seven to pull off the craft-work. I used a combination of skills that I learned helping my mother with armorsmithing along with shop class to shape the metal into the sculpture at hand. I’d managed to touch on all of the eras of horror, ranging from the classic movie monsters, to slashers, to zombies, and to the just plain weird of some of the early horror films. Additionally, I worked in representatives of _real_ supernatural horror, from the Fae to vampires and even _fucking_ ghouls. I combined it such that as you went around the sculpture, you could see a different scene and it’d draw a sense of building dread.

The sculpture stood at about six feet tall, and I’d designed it to be similar to a shadowbox. Each scene stood out from the central pillar of metal, projecting with the voids a shadowed display that ranged from the claws of Krueger, the mask of Jason, and the sickle of the Reaper in one scene to the full moon, some fangs, and the Monster’s metal bolts in another. Each scene was designed to cast a proper shadow, and while it wasn’t perfect, I was proud of my work. There were some minor dents and dings that managed to get into it, likely from what happened during transit, but overall it seemed okay, save for the crack that had formed at the base of the real world supernatural shadowbox. Damnit. It should have been protected from that sort of thing. The damage just spoke of carelessness, but I couldn’t let it ruin the con.

I frowned and gave a look around. There was a relatively simple solution to this, but I didn’t want to be caught doing it. Luckily, the people who had set up the sculpture had read my instructions about an optimum viewing distance and actually placed a circle, made of a similar metal to the sculpture, around the statue on the ground. This would be perfect. With a token effort of will, I snapped the circle shut around the statue so my energy wouldn’t leave it, and I reached into my purse, pulled out a pair of gloves, and slipped them on such that the circles on them were on the backs of my hands. I reached into the sculpture near the crack, and I gathered my will.

“ _Arctis fulmina,_ ” I whispered my spell’s incantation, and frost filled in between the edges of the crack. Once the crack was filled completely, the ice flared into a spark of electricity, pulling the edges together and welding them shut. This was nothing more than a quick and dirty fix since I didn’t have my tools with me. It wasn’t perfect by any means, and if I’d had both the time and the inclination to bring it back to my workshop, I’d fix it properly there. Unfortunately, time was not something that I had at the moment. I idly broke the circle so I could bend over to properly examine the repair. Yeah. It definitely wasn’t perfect, but it was the best I could do right now.

My focus was not so fully caught by my sculpture that I missed the familiar approaching presence of a pair of young women. Both were a little giddy and nervous, and I could feel one staring at me. I just wasn’t exactly sure where, but given what was probably on display... There was a flare of lust from the girl that stared, and the other had… was that a bit of jealousy? At least she didn’t seem to have what I was hoping she didn’t have at the moment. I knew them both, of course.

“You know; I think that this is my favorite room setup,” commented one of the girls. “I mean, that’s a thing of beauty. Oh, and the sculpture’s nice and creepy too.”

“Drea…” I could feel the annoyance in that comment, and I turned around, smiling at them. Sure enough, two girls around my age, Rosie and Drea stood there. Rosanna Marcella, Rosie, is a small brunette, about six inches shorter than me, that was wearing an outfit not all that dissimilar from what I wore, but I think it looked better on me than her. She wasn’t wearing a jacket, just the tank top and a short skirt. Rosie had her hair put up in a ponytail. Honestly, if I didn’t know better or how to look, I wouldn’t even guess that she was pregnant.

The second girl, Andrea Becton, had a head of rolling red curls cut at her shoulders. Some of her hair hung over her face, practically covering one eye, but it didn’t cover her full lips, done in blood-red lipstick. Her upper body was done up in bandages worn under an intentionally torn version of the SplatterCon!!! shirt with faux-bloodstained spots on certain parts of the bandages. She wore a pair of extremely short shorts on her lower body with more bandages on her legs with some porcelain skin exposed.

I shook my head. “Hey, you two.”

“Blue jacket… Faith, right?” Rosie asked and I nodded. “Are you as excited about this as we are?”

“Maybe,” I said. “I’m eager to see how it turns out, but I’m more excited for the Costume contest on Saturday.”

“And I’m sure your costume will be wonderfully beautiful,” Drea said, coming over and wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “So, when are you going to drop that boy toy and take me up on my own?”

Carefully extricating myself from her arm, I shook my head. As hot as Drea was, I wasn’t interested in breaking anything off with Drew right now. Not when we were close to getting past where we were a year and a half ago.

“Definitely not right now, Drea,” I said, shaking my head. “Not here at the con for certain, and definitely not when Sandy’s looking for the two of you to help out up front.”

“Oh, that’s right.” Rosie slapped her fist onto her hand. “We were supposed to be helping with registration.”

“She also wants some coffee, and I suggest bringing some water for yourselves,” I said. “Rosie, you took your vitamins this morning, right?”

“Yes, Ken reminded me.” Rosie glanced toward the door. “I’m almost out of the medicinal tea though.”

“Well, make sure you keep taking your vitamins. I’ll get Drew to take you by the store to get you some more of that later, but you shouldn’t need it as much, right?” I looked at the brunette, tapping my arm with a finger.

“No, but it has been helping,” she said.

I nodded. “If it’s been helping, then that’s a good thing, right?”

“Yeah, a good thing,” Drea said, smiling in what had to be a flirtatious smile at me.

“Make sure she has water,” I said, gesturing at Rosie. “Caffeine could be bad for the baby, but I don’t know how much.”

“I know that!” Rosie came over and nudged me. “Water is what I was planning on drinking anyway.”

“Just wanted to make sure,” I said, raising my arms in a placating gesture. “You know we care about you.”

Rosie smiled, and she wrapped me in a hug. Drea joined her not long afterward. As the three of us hugged, I smiled. It was good to have this group of friends that supported Molly and I. Of course, then there was the thing that made me question…

“Drea,” I said as we were in the middle of the hug. “Your hand. It’s not on my butt is it?”

“No?” she said in a slight upturn of her voice.

“Drea, move your hand.” Rosie nudged the hand I felt off of my butt and we broke up the hug.

“You two should get going. I’ve got a bit more of the rooms to walk, and registration should be starting soon. Sandy’s going to need the help.”

“Right,” they said in unison, almost like Molly and I, but not quite. As the three of us left the hall, I glanced up at the drawing that had been placed above the threshold. Like the other rooms, the artwork matched the theming. The drawing seemed to be a collection of horror tropes superimposed on each other, almost a collage but all as one drawing. It felt right to be in the room, matching my sculpture somewhat. Yeah, it worked fine.

The three of us split as we left, the two of them heading toward the entry to help Sandy with registration, and I went to check out the other rooms in this wing. More or less, they resembled the first few rooms, each one themed appropriately, and I verified that each room had the right number of seats in it with a good amount of room for each person. Hopefully the showings wouldn’t be too overwhelmed with the amount of people that would be showing up. Still, I supposed that this amount would be fine.

After checking the last room, I started heading back toward the entrance. More people had begun to show up, some in costume and some not, as the con had opened. Each of the people there for the convention wore a nametag of some sort, the kind that read “SPLATTERCON!!! HI, I’m…” and then left a space for the writing. The printer must have been down for some reason, and Sandy couldn’t blame me as I’d stayed far away from it all that day. Some of the handwritten names were amusing rather than the actual people’s names. I’d spotted “a survivor,” “the actual killer,” “the ACTUAL actual killer,” and “the token victim” as I went along.

What stopped me was a face I recognized. I saw a large black man with grey hair at the temples dressed in a police uniform walking down the hall. He wore a SplatterCon!!! nametag that read “An Authority Figure” beneath the “HI” in a blocky script. His uniform stripe on his shirt read “RAWLINS.”

What I knew about Officer Rawlins was mostly influenced from my memories of the previous life, but I’d actually met the man the previous year, a short while after Drew was taken. He’d seemed to match what my memories said of him and more. I couldn’t help the smile that came to my face when I saw him. He stopped.

“Well, hello there, missy,” Rawlins rumbled, matching my smile with his own. I felt a bit of recognition flare up in him. He must have remembered seeing me before. “Enjoying yourself so far?”

“More or less,” I said. “Can’t wait till they get the projectors going. I’m checking out the vampire movie marathon when I’m off on Saturday.”

“Now, I would have pegged you for a fan of the slasher genre.”

“Well, I _do_ like _Harvest_ , but the Scarecrow’s more of a movie monster than a typical Slasher,” I said. “Though I suppose he shares a lot of qualities with Jason Voorhees, in that he tends to be unstoppable when started. Thing is, he’s more monstrous than the others. Freddy, Jason, the Reaper, Ghostface? In the end, they’re still human underneath all the trappings of their movies. Humans can be evil or corny, but monsters, unknowable things? They’re scary.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Rawlins chuckled. “I’m more a fan of the psychological thriller myself. But if we’re going horror, give me a good zombie movie any day.”

I shuddered, remembering the previous year. “You know, I’m all zombie apocalypsed out. They seem to be infesting everything these days. All about the brains, I guess.”

Rawlins nodded. “I suppose you’re right. Still, I hope that I manage to get a little bit of time off to watch some of the films here. From what I saw of the schedule, there’s a pretty good selection.”

“Yeah, Sandy did a good job at that,” I said. “We’ve got three thousand people pre-registered for the convention. It should be successful enough that we manage to get a second. I’m so proud of everyone that mana—”

I was cut off by the sound of breaking glass and a screaming man coming from the nearby men’s restroom. A serious look came over Rawlins’s face, and he waved me behind him. Keeping my hands at the ready, I followed the police officer toward the noise, and he pulled out his gun, leading the way. I slowly lowered my shields, if only just so that I could tell what was going on.

I regretted it almost immediately. A wave of unadulterated _fear_ went through my body, originating in the men’s restroom at the end of the hall. My mouth dried out as my heart started racing. I could feel my throat starting to close, and I barely resisted the urge to just run. The feelings of the crowd around me were drowned out by the fear. I stumbled a bit in the hall, causing Rawlins to look back at me and frown.

“I’m... okay…” I managed to pant out, steadying myself, thanks in part to the efforts of another staff member standing nearby. This wasn’t _my_ fear. I wasn’t the one afraid. Someone else was.

“You should stay here. It could be dangerous,” Rawlins rumbled, and I felt his concern. I latched onto it to push the fear down. I _was not afraid._

_I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer._

Rawlins pushed forward, the crowd parting for the cop, and I pushed myself to the wall. I knew that if whatever was causing this was supernatural, I stood a better chance of dealing with it than the police officer, thus I followed, carefully, weaving through people.

Three presences in the restroom. I felt three there, two afraid, and one… I couldn’t tell. Rawlins made it to the door of the restroom, and a gout of pain shot up my arm, like something slammed into it. It wasn’t my pain, just an echo, but I felt more on my face, my stomach, my chest, my shoulders, my _arms and legs_. The pain wasn’t mine, but it hurt nonetheless. I needed to push it out.

_Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration._

I heard one last scream, and a wave of pain washed over my shoulders, causing me to gasp out.

Two presences. There were two in the restroom as Rawlins opened the door. Where had the third gone? I could hear whimpering from within the restroom, and I heard a piece of glass crash to the ground. I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth.

_I will face my fear._ I pushed out the fear that wasn’t mine and focused on my breathing. _I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain._

I raised my shields, breathing out once more, letting my own emotions take precedence. I could feel Molly on the other side of the hotel pushing comfort toward me, and I sighed, looking to Rawlins. The man had pushed his way inside, but I couldn’t see past him. I could see his pallor paling as he turned his head away from the scene.

He pulled out his radio, and he started trying to call dispatch, but static greeted him, followed by a loud screeching noise. Great. I didn’t mean to do that if it was my fault. Rawlins turned to look at me directly. I could feel his frustration.

“Miss Carpenter, go call nine-one-one. Let them know we need an ambulance and some more officers. There’s been an attempted murder.”

I nodded and moved, following Rawlins’s orders on instinct. The injured man in there needed to be saved…

Wait. That second presence… Was that Nelson?

  



	4. Chapter Four

I called 911 on one of the house phones that had been set up throughout the hotel, forcing myself to keep focused through the call. The crowd started gathering down the hall near the bathroom, and I could feel the agitation and confusion collectively from them. Thankfully, the phone only glitched a few times as it rang, and when the Emergency Operator answered, there weren’t any errors. I explained what had happened and where we were, and then I went to wait near the nearest entrance.

While it didn’t take Emergency Services long to actually do the dispatch and arrive, the moments I spent waiting for them were tense. When they entered the hotel, I directed them toward the bathroom. I had to lead them through a growing crowd to get back there, and when I got to the end of the hall, I saw that both convention and hotel security had already started to try and set up a perimeter. I could see Rawlins standing next to the bathroom, talking with a visibly shaken Nelson, but the nearby crowd was talking too loud for me to make out any of the words they said. Given that I didn’t see any injured person outside, I assumed that they probably were inside still. I didn’t dare to lower my shields again to try and confirm that fact, but it seemed to be a safe bet. I gestured for the benefit of the paramedics, and they pushed past me to head into the bathroom.

“Fai, over here…” Drew waved me down, using his prosthetic. I saw him standing over near the edge of the perimeter next to my sister. The two of them had a better viewing angle to see Nelson and Rawlins at, but given the noise from other onlookers, they probably still couldn’t hear them. I made my way over to join them, and Molly moved so that I could get between her and my almost boyfriend. Once I sidled in between them, Drew wrapped his right arm around my waist, and I leaned on his shoulder. “What happened here?”

“Wish I knew,” I said, looking on as some more policemen joined Rawlins in talking to Drew. “One minute I was talking to Officer Rawlins, and then pandemonium in the bathroom.”

“You were feeling something pretty intense,” Molly commented, prodding me. “What had you so afraid?”

“It wasn’t my fear,” I said, and the bathroom door opened, the paramedics wheeling out a stretcher. The man on it had been brutally beaten, still unconscious. One side of his face had started to swell up from bruising, and from the state of his hair, I could tell that his head had been bleeding. From the way the paramedics were supporting the stretcher, one of his arms had to have been broken, and the same could be said for both his legs. From the way he was strapped, they were trying to support his spine. The man was old, his skin toughened like worn leather, and though his clothing was bloody, I could feel he’d make it through this eventually. It was only after I saw that in him that I realized who it was. “The fear was his. Mr. Pell’s.”

“So, what did it?” Drew asked, looking on, and I frowned as I watched the cops.

“I’m not sure, but it certainly wasn’t Nelson. I know that much. Hold on a second,” I said as I saw that one of the new officers had pulled out his handcuffs. This was eerily familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. Rather than focus on that, I pushed forward past the perimeter, using the fact that I was staff to get close. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Miss, please step back,” said an officer.

“What are you doing?” Molly asked, stepping up behind me. “He didn’t do _that_.”

“That’s none of your concern,” said the same officer.

“I’m his girlfriend, of course it’s my concern!”

I placed a hand on my sister’s shoulder, and I shook my head. _We can’t stop it from happening. Nelson’s going to get arrested. They’re not going to listen to us._

_But he didn’t do it!_ Molly glared at the cop, turning toward her boyfriend. I tightened my grip as she said, “Nelson didn’t do it! He couldn’t have!”

“Get back behind the line, both of you,” the officer said.

_They’re not going to find anything to implicate someone else._ That was something I was pretty sure about. Whatever did this had managed to disappear without a trace other than the damage it dealt. The third presence had been separate from the other two, but it had vanished too quickly to leave anything.

“Nelson Lenhardt, you’re under the arrest for the aggravated assault of Clark Pell.” Nelson’s hands were cuffed behind his back, and the officer started leading him off.

“He’s innocent,” my sister called out, and I echoed her a second later. Of course, nothing came from it other than the officers shrugging it off. Well, that and Molly’s temper flaring up. I had to keep my hands on her to keep her energies grounded, but I knew how she felt. _Fai, we can’t just let him get taken! It wasn’t his fault! You know it!_

_No, it wasn’t his fault. I’m still trying to figure out what it was, but how are we, two minors, going to explain to police officers that it was a magical disappearing thing that hurt Pell, not your boyfriend? We don’t have that kind of pull._ I squeezed Molly’s shoulder, and I forcefully took a deep breath. I needed to keep myself calm and centered, not let myself get swept up in Molly’s anger. It’d be too easy. No, instead, I looked over to the only familiar face among the police there. “Hey, Officer Rawlins!”

The larger officer made his way over to us as Nelson was escorted away, following the paramedics out.

“Go and help with the taping of the door, Jenkins, I’ve got this.” Rawlins gestured to the first officer we had spoken to, and then he looked at us. My sister and I carefully avoided looking him in the eyes, and Rawlins sighed. “Definitely not what I thought would happen on the first day of a convention.”

“He didn’t do it,” Molly said to him. “I know he didn’t.”

Rawlins shook his head. “I don’t think he did either, but he’s the only possible suspect, Miss Carpenter. Your sister was there with me. You see anyone else come out of that bathroom?”

I shook my head. “We’d have heard it too, if someone had. There weren’t nearly as many people around as there are now, and that’s not the quietest door here. Still, I don’t think he did it.” I didn’t want to bring up the supernatural. While I knew Rawlins was a good cop, he wasn’t a part of Special Investigations. He had no reason to believe that something supernatural was even a possibility. I didn’t want to look crazy to the man.

“Boy’s best bet is the injured, and seeing if we can find another possible person,” Rawlins said.

Molly looked down. “I don’t want him spending a night in jail.”

“Well, luckily for you, this sort of charge doesn’t need a judge to set bail usually. Otherwise he’d have to wait until one was free,” Rawlins rumbled, looking to my sister and I. “So if you can come up with the bail money, he can be out tonight.”

“How much do you think it will be?” I asked, genuinely curious. If we could afford it with our discretionary funds, that’d be fine. Otherwise, we were going to have to do something.

“Can’t rightly say. I’m not one who usually deals with that. You’ll want to go to the station and ask there.”

Damn. If I remembered right, Nelson also had a record. Unless we could prove his innocence, even if we managed to get him out tonight, there was a good chance the boy would be going to jail for a while.

“How soon can we get him out?” Molly asked.

“Depends on how long it takes for him to go through the booking process, but I can get you directions to the jail.” Rawlins pulled out a notepad and wrote down an address. “It’s here.”

“Hey, Rawlins. We’re done here for now,” Jenkins said as he walked over. “Sergeant says you need to stay though. Keep an eye on the scene?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m here anyway.” Rawlins waved the younger officer off, and he turned back toward us. “Now, you two probably have a few hours to figure out how you want to handle things.”

“I’ll drive them to the precinct,” Drew said, as he walked up behind me. “Come on, you two. Let’s get going and let Officer Rawlins do his job.”

I nodded, and Molly joined me a second later. We walked away from the bathroom, heading toward the entrance.

As we walked, Drew turned to my sister and asked, “What the heck did you think you were doing, Molly?”

“Nelson didn’t do it! They shouldn’t have arrested him…” Molly said.

“That’s why I went over, I thought I might be able to help out if I added my two cents.” I looked to my sister.

“Fat lot of good that did,” Molly groused. “But thanks… for not letting me go more off the handle there.”

“Didn’t want to have to bail two people out.” I nudged my sister lightly. Despite making light of it, I really didn’t want to deal with that. “Speaking of… We need to find a way to get him bailed out. Whatever was in the bathroom with him and Pell… It might go after him tonight. The only issue is we just paid rent a few days ago; our discretionary funds are low.”

“Sell a card or two?” Drew suggested. “I know the two of you have some pretty valuable old stuff.”

“Problem with that,” Molly said. “Is finding a buyer in time. We’d have to broker it through either you or Sandy’s online accounts, and that could take longer than we have to get him out tonight.”

“Would take longer,” I said, clarifying. “Unless we got really lucky, the money wouldn’t even hit our account by Monday. So, if selling cards are out…”

I paused as we made it to the entrance. A lull in the line meant that Sandy was taking a coffee break. The woman looked beat, and while I could feel some happiness from her, there was also a healthy dose of worry. When she spotted us, she came over.

“I saw the paramedics and them leading Nelson out in cuffs, what happened?” She looked at the three of us. “Why was Nelson being arrested?”

“He didn’t do it,” I said quickly.

“Didn’t do _what_?” Sandy asked. “That was Clark on that stretcher. What happened?”

“Something beat the crap out of Mister Pell in the bathroom,” I said. “But whatever did, it disappeared before Rawlins got into there.”

“ _What_ ever, not _who_ ever, Faith?” Sandra cocked an eyebrow. “That’s making a bit of an assumption, but I agree that Nelson wouldn’t do that to Clark.”

“We need Nelson out tonight,” Molly said, looking to Sandy. “Is there any way you can help out?”

“I tied up most of my liquid assets in getting this convention together, Molly. I have to have the funds in there to cover the guest appearances and the other events.” I could feel the consternation rising in Sandy. “I just… I don’t have the money right now. If you can’t get him out tonight, I might be able to get something together tomorrow, but…”

“Right. We understand,” I said, gripping my sister’s hand with my right and Drew’s flesh and blood hand with my left. We needed to make sure that Nelson was out. If he was a target of whatever this was, he’d be a sitting duck in jail. Molly needed him out too. “We’ll take off and see if we can’t get Nelson out of there tonight.”

“If you can get back as soon as possible, I’d appreciate it,” Sandra said. “There’s still a lot of work to do, and we need to make sure the guests are fine.”

“Yeah. We’ll be here,” Drew said. “I’ll see if we can’t get something for Mr. Pell to have in his hospital room too.”

“Thank you, Andrew.” Sandy sipped her coffee and glanced at the line. More people had entered, presumably for some more registration. “Now, I’ll go relieve Rosanna and Andrea. I believe they need a break. Good luck.”

As Sandy made her way back to the front desk, we made our way out to the Ex Machina, still considering sources for how we were going to get Nelson bailed out tonight. It wasn’t going to be an easy thing. We’d immediately ruled out calling and asking our parents. Mom and Daddy really didn’t like Nelson despite him being the same age as Drew, and while we were certain that they’d probably pay for it, we did have younger siblings that our parents needed the money for more. Drew had ruled out his own family as well, claiming that his Dad was in further negotiations with the Cubs to try and get his new contract sorted out and this could impede that if the money was found to come from him.

We drove and kept an eye on the time.

“What about Marcone?” Drew said as we turned onto the highway. “He probably has lawyers and could fund it.”

“But then we’d _owe_ Marcone,” I said. “It’s not really an acceptable option for the same reason that asking Lara isn’t acceptable. Letting either of them know that Nelson, who can barely protect himself from his own habits, is a potential point of weakness for us wouldn’t end well.”

“We can’t really rule them out completely though. Marcone is an honorable person, and we have dealt with him before,” Molly said. “But I have a better idea.”

“No.” I shook my head. I knew who Molly wanted to call, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t a good idea. “I’m not going to even dignify that one with why not.”

Drew looked in the rearview mirror back at my sister. “Better idea?”

“We don’t need his help, Drew, Molly…” I looked out the window. I really didn’t want to call him in. That can of worms would be frustrating for me. “We can handle this ourselves. Or did you forget the thing Lara wants us doing?”

“Nelson’s got a record,” Molly said. “Which means that if he goes down for this, he’s getting locked up for a long time. You said it yourself. Why would the police believe two minors? Especially when all the minors can say about what happened was what they felt? The average police officer doesn’t believe in magic.”

“That doesn’t mean we need to go to him. That just means we need to go to Lieutenant Murphy and get her involved on the case.”

“Yeah, like she’ll keep him out of it.” Molly crossed her arms. “You just know that’s not going to happen.”

“Keep who out of it?” Drew asked, and I felt some of his confusion. How he hadn’t guessed who we were talking about was beyond me. The context should have gotten it through.

I sighed. I really didn’t want to have to add this to the current levels of stress I had. We really could have figured out what was going on at the convention without his help, but I knew my sister was right in that we wouldn’t be able to prove it to the police. “Molly, how are you going to convince him to bail Nelson out?”

“Oh, that part’s easy enough,” Molly said. “I’ll just tell Harry that I’m the one that needs bailing out.”

“Wait,” Drew said. “Harry. You want to bring Harry Dresden in on this…”

“ _I don’t_ ,” I said. “If this thing that attacked Pell was a part of what Lara has us looking for, I want Harry as far away from it as possible. It’s just—”

“—this seems a little direct for that sort of thing,” Molly said. “And not even the right kind of direct. It practically—”

“—killed Pell, beat the shit out of him in the daylight. If this was what Lara sent us to investigate, why—”

“—didn’t it announce itself more? Show itself. These sorts of things aren’t supposed to be able to interact with the mortal world much.” Molly shook her head. “Fai, this is _exactly_ why we need Harry.”

“I suppose. That just means we need to figure out what Lara set us on before Harry stumbles upon it if we’re bringing him in. This means we need to be a _better investigator than Harry Dresden_.”

“We have one advantage,” Drew said. “He doesn’t know that particular bit, and we can keep it from him. Better that he works the other thing. If we’re getting Nelson free, we need his help anyway. He has pull with the cops.”

“So it’s settled then.” Molly nodded. “I’ll call Harry and ask for help.”

I nodded, frowning. I didn’t really like this, but I couldn’t argue against it more. This felt vaguely familiar, almost like déjà vu or that I was forgetting something.

I guess I wasn’t done with Harry Dresden after all. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.


	5. Chapter Five

I leaned against the wall in the lobby of the Eighteenth District police station and thought while my sister and Drew each went off to make phone calls. Turned out that Rawlins had been wrong; Nelson’s crimes, Reckless Endangerment and Aggravated Assault, required that he appear before a judge for arraignment. Luckily a judge had been available, and Nelson was in there right now. I didn’t know how long it would take for Molly to get through to Harry, nor did I know how long it would take for the wizard to get here, but I did know that he probably wasn’t going to be happy with Molly’s tactic, which meant that I’d have to suck it up and back her up.

I pushed off the wall, glancing back toward where Drew and Molly were, and I gestured outside. Molly sent me a feeling of assurance, and I left the building. There really wasn’t much we could do until Harry got there. There was no way we’d have the funds ourselves to be able to pay the bail, at least not at the moment. I hoped that Harry would be able to help, for Molly’s sake as well as Nelson’s.

I started walking down toward the sidewalk, almost wishing that I had worn clothes that had actual pockets. I couldn’t exactly put my hands nonchalantly to my sides and walk in a sullen manner with what I wore, but I made my best effort. The sun had dipped its glowing orb beyond the horizon, but I needed to walk, even in this neighborhood. Of course, Cabrini Green had really improved in the past few years, and it would probably get even better as time went on with the various municipal projects that were going on.

I didn’t really pay all that much attention to that sort of news. Maybe I should have. I just knew that this was hardly the worst part of Chicago to be walking through at this time of night. Especially when I was walking just down the block and back in front of a police station.

I needed to think.

What had gone after Clark Pell with Nelson in the bathroom with him? Like I’d covered with Molly, it couldn’t have been what Lara had wanted us to find at the Con. The presence wasn’t the right sort for that. It didn’t act the right way. No, whatever it was, it had clearly gone for something before it went after Pell. The fear I felt. Something had been radiating that, and it wasn’t just coming from Nelson. Maybe that was the key, but I needed more data. I didn’t know as much as Harry about this sort of thing, but my memories should have covered some of it. I needed to figure out what I needed to remember, but seventeen-year-old memories of a past life were starting to wear down.

I vaguely remembered Splat…ter...co—Oh damn. I couldn’t remember exactly what it was that attacked the convention, but I remembered that there were going to be more. It was going to get worse before it got better. I just couldn’t figure out why they hit Pell and Nelson. It didn’t make any sense. Still. Dwelling on it wouldn’t let me solve anything. I needed more information, and Harry needed to not find out anything about the Venatori while he was the one getting it.

My thoughts seemed to circle around themselves for some time as I walked. I needed to remember, but I couldn’t remember more than I had. I needed to figure it out, but I needed more information. Nelson couldn’t stay in the jail; he might be a target, but Molly was calling the one person I really didn’t want to deal with. I don’t even know how long I spent walking, mulling over my thoughts. I think at one point, Drew joined me for a little bit, but he stopped after a bit, heading in to go help with Molly. I think he told me that the arraignment had finished, and the bail was set at a level that was just shy of absurd. The crimes that Nelson had been charged for were absurd on the face of it, but he had a record. This wasn’t going to go well if Harry couldn’t prove his innocence.

As I paced on a return trip to the police station, I noticed a taxi drive up. First out of the cab was a dark-colored quadruped with long fur, low hanging ears, a canine snout and a long tail. I’d say that it was a dog, but it was easily the size of a Shetland pony and not one of the smaller ones either. If I didn’t recognize the emotional signature of it, I ‘d have been a lot more worried, but hell’s bells, Mouse had gotten huge. Of course, then he stepped out.

One thing that has to be said about Harry Dresden is the first thing that everyone notices. The wizard is tall, easily standing over six and a half feet tall. He’s lanky too, built more like a runner than a body builder, but he definitely has taut muscles. His hair was a shaggy dark untamed mess that still was within the range of being called comfortably short, and today his five o’clock shadow had gained a half a day. I saw a few nicks and bruises along his arms and a little on his face as he approached the station dressed in a red T-shirt and blue jeans. He wore cowboy boots because of course he did, and his left hand was covered in a black leather glove.

A few years ago, Harry had attacked a Black Court lair, and the lairer… lairee… lair owner, she took exception to that. The vampire had used a flamethrower on him. His shield at the time, it could protect from all sorts of kinetic impacts, but it couldn’t do a thing about heat. His hand had nearly burned off, but now, judging from the way he held Mouse’s collar, he’d regained _some_ functionality. Honestly, I was more curious about his other wounds.

“…” I wasn’t sure how to approach him. The last time I’d seen Harry, I’d been telling him to have a nice life. I’d been yelling at him about his hypocrisy, and he’d been yelling at me about bad decisions. Luckily, I wasn’t the one who made the first move.

Mouse turned his massive head toward me and chuffed before breaking Harry’s hold on his collar and running over to me. I smiled, bending over slightly so I could get down to Mouse’s level. I really didn’t have to bend far. Mouse had gotten huge.

“Looks like you’re getting things going for us, aren’t you, boy?” I asked as I ran a hand over Mouse’s head. Warm feelings radiated off of him, but they were accompanied with another feeling that I wasn’t entirely familiar with. If I had to guess what that feeling was, it would mean that the large dog was scolding me. I responded, softly. “Hey, I get enough of that from Mom and Molly. I don’t need it from you too.”

_Missed you_ , his feelings seemed to say. Mouse’s emotional range was easily as wide as any of the Alphas in their wolf forms, but I wasn’t entirely sure exactly how developed he was or how intelligent. I got the vague sense that he was probably always the smartest being in the room, even when dealing with Bob, but I wouldn’t press it.

Instead I scratched behind his ears and said, “I missed you too, boy. You got so big while we were gone. I mean, I knew from your paw size that you were going to be a big dog, but you’re massive.”

“Yeah, he’s a regular dogasaurus.” I’d been so focused on Mouse that I’d missed Harry approaching. Either my shields were really good or his own had gotten better, as I couldn’t passively sense him. I looked over to the man who was once my mentor, still avoiding looking in his eyes. Of course, I had to look up to see his face. “When did you learn to speak dog?”

“When did you become a Warden?” I asked, and then I immediately slapped my hand over my mouth. I really hadn’t meant to ask that, answer a question with a question, but Harry’s eyes narrowed as he looked at me with new, calculating eyes. At first I almost thought he was looking over my outfit, and while I didn’t really care if he liked it or not, I really didn’t want him judging me harshly by it. However, he probably was wondering about the Warden comment since he wasn’t wearing his gray cloak. I needed to clarify how I knew. “News travels, Mr. Dresden. Excuse me, Warden Dresden.”

“Harry, Faith. It’s Harry.” Harry ran a hand through his hair, and I felt a flash of embarrassment from him. Ha. His shields weren’t perfect, but then neither were my own. “For you and your family, it’s always Harry.”

“Harry, then. I—”

What I wanted to say was cut off by a low rumbling sound that reverberated through my bones. My eyes flitted toward Mouse, the source, and then across the street. A car had pulled up on the far side, stopped directly under a no parking sign. There was a shadow in the car, a white sedan, and I swore that the car seemed familiar somehow.

“Yours?” I asked the wizard.

“Ignore it,” Harry said. “Maybe we should continue our talk inside with your sister present. She said something about someone needing bail?”

I nodded, sighing. “Yeah. They’re probably wondering why I was taking such a long walk anyway.”

“Well, why were you?” Harry turned to lead the way inside, clearly expecting me to follow. I did, but not because of his expectations. Mouse did as well, flanking my side behind Harry.

“I needed to think. Away from Molly for a little. She was right though. We do need you. Nelson could be a target for whatever this was.” God, it was so easy to fall back on routine, even after being away from the man for eighteen months. He seemed content to just use it as well. Still… I could remember our argument. There was fault on both sides.

“What do you mean by whatever? Faith, I’m going to need more to go on,” Harry said.

“I don’t have much. Nelson probably has more, but I haven’t really been able to talk with him since his arrest. Whatever it was, it scared him, and it beat the everliving crap out of Clark Pell.” I looked toward the door to the station, and I spoke softly. “It scared _me_ , and I didn’t even see it.”

Harry suppressed a wince, but he couldn’t suppress the feelings that would have led to it. Maybe he was being sympathetic, but it ultimately didn’t matter. “Okay. That’s not really a lot to go on at all.”

I shook my head, and as we got to the door, I actually stepped back as I felt Molly open it. She smiled at me, then at Harry, and then her attention quickly was drawn to the furry companion that was at my side.

“Is that Mouse?” Molly said, and I nodded along with Harry. Mouse? He chuffed. Molly came over and scratched his ears. “Oh, you’ve gotten so big, Mouse. What the heck were Harry and Thomas feeding you?”

“Oh, a little of this and that,” Harry said, and then Molly wrapped him in a hug, which he returned. “It’s good to see you again too, kid. That applies to both of you.”

“It’s good seeing you again too, Harry,” I said with a sigh. I really hadn’t realized how much I missed the man until now. “I just—”

“—wish it were better circumstances,” Molly said.

“Faith told me a little about it,” Harry said. “Why did you need me to do the bailing?”

“All our other methods to arrange bail would take too long,” Molly said. “Or they’d have strings attached that we didn’t want to use.”

“Plus the spooky bit,” Harry added.

“Plus the spooky bit,” I agreed. “Nelson’s an orphan. He really doesn’t have anyone else to turn to right now, and he needs help.”

Harry let out an elaborate sigh. I knew his own personal experience with being an orphan probably affected him. It was a lever that Molly probably used to guilt him into coming down to help, and I just reinforced it. “Right. I said I’d help over the phone, and I meant it.”

“We can pay you back,” I said. “It just might take a little time. We can even pay you for your investigation.”

Harry shook his head. “I’ve got a different price. You’ll be paying it tonight after we find out what Nelson knows.”

I looked to Molly, and I saw the slight quirk of a smile forming on her face. She knew exactly what Harry was talking about.

Damn it. I hated being in the dark.

  



	6. Chapter Six

When the three of us, and Mouse, made it to the proper lobby, Drew walked over to us while carrying two cups, one in each hand. He’d managed to wedge one cup into his prosthetic, and it appeared to be a steaming hot cup of what smelled like coffee from here. In his other hand, he had something that looked more like soda. He smiled as he approached.

“About time that you got back in here,” Drew said. “I was about to head out and come to get you. Molly, here’s your coffee.”

“Thanks, Drew,” Molly took the cup from Drew’s prosthetic, and she looked to Harry after taking a sip. “Drew, you remember Harry Dresden, right?”

“Hard to forget someone that tall,” Drew said with a grin. “How are you, sir?”

“Well, I’m in a police station to bail someone out,” Harry said in a sardonic tone. “You’d think that would be the worst part of my day, but coming here stopped me from doing something very stupid.”

Mouse chuffed in agreement, and I looked over Harry again. In the light of the station, the bruises and cuts on him really stood out. Something had happened to him today, and given that he had arrived in a cab rather than the Blue Beetle, his old-school VW bug, I was pretty sure that I knew what.

“You had a car accident,” I said, stating it as a fact, and when I felt the flare of emotion through Harry’s shields, I knew I was on the right track. “Except it wasn’t really an accident, was it? Someone’s—”

“Let’s not dwell on that for now,” Harry said, looking at me, and then I saw him look back to Drew. His eyes seemed to linger for a little on my friend’s prosthetic. “So, why are you here? Surely you’re not their handyman.”

I felt like slapping the wizard upside the back of his head, but instead I settled with leveling a glare at him that could rival my mother’s. Harry wasn’t half as funny as he pretended to be.

“Well, Faith and Molly are my friends, and Nelson is kinda,” Drew said. “They needed a hand to help get them here, so I offered mine. Unfortunately, I couldn’t cover the bail myself, at least not on such short notice, but I figured I’d show my support.”

At least Drew took it in stride, offering a bit of wordplay back. Still, I couldn’t believe that Harry would deal with that.

“How much do you know about what happened?” Harry asked.

“Well, I know what Faith experienced,” Drew said. “But I wasn’t an eyewitness to any of it. I was taking a look over some of the projection equipment in another room at the con.”

“Right,” Harry said, and he looked to me. “I’ll have to get your view on it after I talk with Nelson then.”

I nodded as I went to my sister. I was curious as to what Nelson saw and heard too. Molly and I knew how Harry operated, having been his apprentices for a good two years before we left home, and he needed the information that Nelson had. I just hoped that my sister’s boyfriend would actually be able to give something of use.

“Speaking of, Nelson got out of arraignment about a half hour ago,” Drew said, and then he sipped from the cup in his hand. “His bail’s set and he should be back in his cell, ready to be picked up.”

“Well then, kids,” Harry said. “Shall we? I’m going to need one of you to hold Mouse’s leash while I get this handled.”

“I’ll do it,” I said, taking his leash in hand. Mouse seemed almost offended that he even needed the leash in the first place, but I murmured to him about leash law. He seemed a little more receptive to it after that, as he stepped closer to me. Molly and Drew stood near me as Harry went over to talk with the office matron about getting Nelson released. We watched as Harry paid the lady, pulling a wad of cash from his pocket that the woman actually counted out individually.

“So, the bail really was that high?” I asked.

“High enough that the only way we’d have gotten it done without Harry was a bail bondsman,” Molly said. “And I think most of those are already closed until the morning.”

“And if Nelson was actually the target of this thing rather than Mr. Pell…” Drew trailed off.

“Then we need him out and behind an actual threshold tonight,” I concluded. “Still, maybe Drew actually saw something.”

Drew nudged me. “Nelson, Fai. I’m out here.”

“Right,” I said, resisting the urge to slap my forehead. “Sorry, lot on my mind. What was Harry’s price for this anyway?”

“Harry didn’t want me to let you know before he did, but it’s nothing that we can’t handle.” Molly gave me a hug, Drew joining not long after. I returned the hug, and I leaned slightly on my sister. I could feel her fidgeting a little, so I sent some comfort her way through our link. She was still worried about Nelson.

_Hey. Your boy toy is going to be fine, sis._ I glanced over to Harry, who was finishing up whatever paperwork that they had him doing. I’d never bailed anyone out of jail myself, and I doubted I ever woul—rather I hoped, I never would have to do it.

My sister nodded, and when Harry came back over to us, we went to sit down. They had to go get Nelson from lockup, something that required us to wait for a little. I sat next to my sister to try and keep her calm, and Drew sat on the other side of me. Luckily Harry was content to stay quiet while we waited, and I didn’t really have to say anything to him. I really didn’t want to bring anything up with him. I mean, I really didn’t want to apologize first. I definitely owed Harry an apology, but I didn’t want to be the first one to apologize. He was in the wrong too.

Molly squeezed my hand, and I looked. Nelson had managed to come out of wherever they’d kept him, and he looked frazzled. He wasn’t quite as bad as he’d been at the convention center, right after the event had happened, but he still didn’t quite look himself. He looked tired, mostly, and a little nervous. There was something else that I felt there too, a lingering something that almost shouldn’t have been… No, I’d not focus on that, especially when he finished signing the last of the paperwork.

Nelson quickly came over to us, and Molly stood to meet him. They wrapped each other in a hug, and started talking lowly to one another. I couldn’t exactly hear them clearly, but I knew more or less what each of them were saying. Molly mentioned that Harry was the one to bail him out, and she mentioned that she was disappointed that she wasn’t really able to find him at the con before the event happened. He was apologetic, and he mentioned needing to do more tonight for Sandy. I could feel his thankfulness from where I stood, and he moved to try and kiss my sister. While Molly was happy he was out, she wasn’t quite feeling up to being fully affectionate; I knew that she’d wanted to meet up with him at the con, after all. So she simply smiled at Nelson, and when he bent down to kiss her, she turned her head so he’d kiss her cheek. I’m sure the message was clearly received. My sister wasn’t happy, Nelson. Which meant I wasn’t all that pleased with him either.

I wasn’t entirely sure why she wasn’t happy with Nelson himself, but I needed to trust my sister. I walked over to the two of them, Drew trailing behind me, and Nelson backed away from my sister, rubbing hands on his pants and biting his lower lip a little. I offered a smile of my own to him as I approached.

“Nelson, good to see you out,” I said, leaving my smile on my face as I got closer. Idly I noted Harry walking toward a payphone. “Little funny how all three of us managed to miss you at the con, at least until you were arrested here.”

“I don’t know how that happened,” Nelson said, and I really believed him. That didn’t really mean that I couldn’t give him some crap for it. He was dating my sister, after all, and I needed to look out for her. If Nelson was talking with someone, I needed to find out so that Molly could figure how she wanted to deal with it. “I just… It was a little crazy.”

“Yeah, it was. We’re not the ones you need to talk about it with though.” I turned slightly and gestured to Harry, who stood next to Mouse now. “He’ll ask about what happened. _Tell him_.”

“I need to go do some things for Sandy though,” Nelson said. Sandy was important to Nelson, I knew, given what she’d done for him, Rosie and Drea in the past. Still, that was some dedication, given what he’d been through.

“That can wait, man. You just got out of jail,” Drew said. “Besides, I checked the flights a little while ago. Darby Crane doesn’t even get in for another two and a half hours. Talk to the guy. He’s going to try and help.”

Nelson grunted, and while I didn’t really get what he meant by that, it seemed to be an acquiescence to reason. The four of us made our way back over to Harry, and Nelson held out his hand, not even looking up to Harry as he said, “Uh. I guess, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Harry said, taking Nelson’s hand in his own for a handshake. It looked like the two of them were giving each other a good squeeze, and I could literally feel the alpha male one-upmanship going between the two. I snorted in disgust. Men. “It isn’t often that I get a request from one of my two grasshoppers these days, and you gave the perfect excuse to see them. How could I not help?”

Nelson paused for a second to mouth the word “grasshopper” and look to Molly and I. Drew placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed.

“So uh…” Nelson looked at Drew, but then he looked back to Harry. “You can… help somehow?”

Harry smiled. “Yes, I’d like to. If you could tell me your version of events, I can see what I can do.”

“Right. I’m not exactly sure what happened. I was in the bathroom—”

“At the convention, SplatterCon,” I added.

“What kind of convention is that?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Horror movies,” Drew said. “This one screens them, invites in directors, special effects guys, actors, and some Authors.”

“We’ve got discussion panels, costume contests, vendors,” Nelson added. “Fans show up to meet industry guests and get together. Not necessarily in that order.”

“Okay. Think I get it. You’re a fan, then?”

“Staff,” Nelson said, adjusting his shirt a little. “I’m supposed to be in charge of security. The others are more general staff there.”

“Makes sense,” Harry said, looking from Nelson to my sister, Drew and I. “But back to the bathroom.”

“Okay,” Nelson said. “Well, I’d had a good amount of coffee and chips and pizza from our lunch date and other things, so I was just sitting in the bathroom with the stall door closed. You know, doing my thing.”

“Think we get the picture,” I said.

“What happened?” Harry asked.

“I heard someone come in,” Nelson said. “The door was really squeaky.” Nelson licked his lips, and I felt a lingering aspect of the fear he’d felt rise up within him, causing me to wince. Whatever it was, it had managed to affect him just by its presence. “And a short while later, he started screaming.”

“Who did?”

“Clark Pell,” I said. “He’s the guy who owns the old movie theater next to the hotel. We rented it for the weekend for the convention. He was there to finalize some things for the play schedule and I assume security stuff?”

Nelson nodded. “He’s a nice enough old guy. Always seemed supportive of the convention.”

“So, why was he screaming?” Harry asked, and he held up a hand as I started to speak. “From Nelson, please. If I need clarification, I’ll ask.”

I nodded and gestured to Molly’s boyfriend.

“Well, you have to understand, I really didn’t see anything.” Nelson said, and Harry nodded. “It sounded like a fight, though. I heard some scuffling sounds. Pell let out a noise, right? Like someone had startled him.” Nelson shook his head. “And then he started screaming.”

“So, what happened?” Harry asked.

“Well, I wanted to help him. I even jumped up to try and do so, but…” Nelson’s body simultaneously flushed with embarrassment yet the lingering feeling of fear just got a little stronger. “Well, I wasn’t quite done yet, and I was in the middle of everything. It took me a little to get out of the stall.”

“And then?”

“Well, Mr. Pell was there,” Nelson said, shivering. “He was unconscious and bleeding. Not real, real bad, but it looked like he’d taken a real pounding. Broken nose at the least, maybe his jaw… maybe a lot more. They took him to the hospital.”

“Any possible way anyone could have slipped in or out?”

“Not a chance,” I said. “I’d have seen him, and that door’s really loud.”

“Screams every time it swings,” Nelson confirms. “Nobody else came in until the cop. I’d have heard it or the crowded hall outside if the door opened. I’d have heard them leave if they left through the door, but I was the only one in there when the cop came in.”

“And without any other obvious suspects, they arrested you.”

“Yes.” Nelson nodded.

“So what do you think happened?” Harry asked.

“I really don’t know. Someone else had to have gotten in and out somehow. Maybe they got in through an air vent or something in the bathroom.”

“Or something,” I muttered.

“Yeah,” Harry agreed.

Nelson checked his watch, and he breathed out a sigh. “Still three hours before I’m supposed to meet him. I do have some other stuff I need to get done.”

“I can take you,” Drew said. “That is, if you girls don’t mind. I’ve got the Ex Machina here, Nelson.”

“They’ll be staying with me for now, thanks,” Harry said. “We have an appointment to keep.”

Drew looked to me, and then he looked to Molly. He must have found whatever it was he was looking for in my sister’s expression because he nodded after that. “I’ll check in with Sandy when I drop this jailbird off, but I’m pretty sure I’m done with the con for the night. See you tomorrow?”

I nodded. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Drew wrapped me in a hug, and I returned it. While the two of us weren’t quite as close as either of us wanted to be right now, the two of us gave a much better performance of a kiss than Nelson and Molly did. When we broke away, I had a bit of a silly smile on my face, and so did Drew.

“See you later, Molly, Mister Dresden.” Drew waved, and he escorted Nelson out of the station, leading toward his car.

“Him who?” Harry asked, once the two were out of earshot. “Who was Nelson worried about meeting?”

“Darby Crane,” I said. “Director of _Harvest_. Producer and director of a number of others. He’s the guest of honor at SplatterCon.”

“Ah. Makes sense. Flying in?”

“Yeah. While he could take a shuttle to the hotel, it’s more personal if the con sends someone to pick him up,” Molly said. “Fai wanted to be one of the ones to pick him up.”

“Not really… I just admire the guy’s work is all. The Scarecrow scared the crap out of me as a kid,” I said.

“Where the heck did the two of you watch a movie like that as kids?”

“… Our friend Cecelia’s house,” I said quietly. I really didn’t like to remember what had happened to her. She’d been possessed by a being that I only remembered as the Ja’re’be’wo’kay, and she’d needed to be stopped. Of course, the official story was that she was in a fatal car crash. The same event had put two more of our friends in comas. Jason had been moved by his parents out of the city already, and Glenn still was in a long term care facility on the Gold Coast. I sent flowers when I could. It wasn’t the same. Harry only knew the official story, but that should have been enough.

“That’s the one who… Oh,” Harry said, and I felt his sympathy rise. “I’m… I’m sorry for bringing up a bad memory like that.”

“It’s okay,” I said, and then I decided to change the subject. “I suppose I should say what I witnessed.”

“It’d probably be helpful, yes.”

“Well, I didn’t actually see Mr. Pell go into the bathroom, but I did hear him scream. The scream was loud enough to hear, even with the crowd,” I said.

“Okay, and then?”

“Then, I did something that was probably unwise to do in the situation. I lowered my mental shields so I could get a better feel for the area. The fear I felt… it was a lot. It wasn’t my own, either. It felt like something was trying to generate fear, push a false fear onto others. Almost like how a White Court vampire works with lust.”

Harry knew we knew Thomas. He’d technically introduced us as far as he was concerned, but he didn’t know that we’d met him before then.

“Okay, anything else?”

“There were three presences in the bathroom, and then there were two. Nothing physical left the bathroom through that door,” I said. “It didn’t get opened again until Officer Rawlins opened it. He sent me to dial nine-one-one since his radio fried. I think that might have been my fault.”

“When Drew and I came across it, Rawlins already had Nelson out of the bathroom and was talking to him,” Molly said. “Staff security managed to get a perimeter up so that the paramedics and police could get in when Faith brought them.”

“Right. Makes sense,” Harry said. “It’s definitely something of the spookier side of the street then. I’ve got some ideas, but nothing concrete yet. I need to take a look at the crime scene”

Molly and I nodded. That made sense, and focusing on this was easier than focusing on how to deal with Harry. We started for the door when we saw the cab pull up, and Mouse growled again, very quietly. I peeked out the door, and I could see the same white sedan that had been sitting there earlier.

“Your follower is being creepy,” I said. “And he’s not really all that subtle.”

Harry shrugged and strode out of the building, taking us in tow as a cab pulled up to the curb. “Can’t be helped. Sometimes these things happen.”

“Right. So, why’d you want us to stay with you?” I asked as Harry got closer to the cab.

He turned his head over his shoulder to look at me. “Well, I needed your side of the story, and I had to keep you here so you could pay my price. Get in the cab, and I’ll tell you more.”

Molly led the way into the cab, and I joined her, sitting down. Mouse laid near me afterward, and then came Harry Dresden’s lanky body. “Okay, we’re in. What exactly is this price?”

“Dinner with your family,” Harry said. “Buckle up.”


	7. Chapter Seven

In hindsight, I really should have expected that Harry’s price would be something as simple as that. Dinner with the family was a small price to pay for his help in dealing with the situation that we’d found ourselves in, but it wasn’t necessarily the time that I wanted to have it done in. I’d said just that morning that I didn’t want to go home yet, not to the house anyway, but we sat in the cab, on the way there despite my wishes. Mouse nuzzled his head against me, and I smiled at the pup before looking to my sister.

_How is it,_ I sent to her, a tone of annoyance in my thoughts. _That we’re asking Harry to help_ _ **your**_ _boyfriend, but his price for helping us is something that you’ve been hinting at for the past month and a half?_

Molly nudged me lightly, and I could see Harry looking at us. _You’d never have done it on your own, Fai. You’d always come up with an excuse. Our parents had been reasonable enough to meet with us outside the house, but you need to face your fears. Nothing’s going to happen at home._

My eyes flicked from Molly to Harry, and then I looked into my sister’s eyes. _Want to bet?_

The cab pulled up in front of our house, and I felt my heart thump in my chest. Harry hadn’t given us time to go back to the studio and change, and both Molly and I were wearing something that would clearly be disapproved of by our parents. If we wanted to be there for dinner, we had no choice but to wear what we had on. While Mom and Daddy had seen us before, they hadn’t seen the whole package on display. They’d known about the tattoos, the piercings, but when we’d met up with them, we didn’t wear clothing that showed them off, knowing that it’d make them uncomfortable. I mean, we were wearing midriff-baring shirts and _very_ short skirts. The only consolation I had was that my outfit was more intact than Molly’s.

Of course, now we didn’t really have much choice. When Harry opened the cab door, the smell of grilling meat assaulted both Molly’s and my noses. Oh, the scent was heavenly. Sometimes I swore that our father was given divine grace when it came to grilling, just as Mom was in the kitchen.

I swallowed, and I stepped out of the cab. Molly followed me, and Mouse stood by Harry as he paid the driver.

Our house. The house we grew up in. Daddy had managed to get the lawn pristine this year, perfectly trimmed. I was sure that our room probably was fine, but… Lord, this was hard. I’d run away… left… to keep them safe. Maybe it hadn’t been the right idea, but I still thought that it needed to be done.

Molly reached out and squeezed my hand, and I let out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding. “Guess we should head over…”

“Yeah,” Molly said with a smile.

“Should we just go around to the backyard?” Harry asked. “It smells like the grill is on.”

I shook my head. “Probably better if we go through the front door.”

We crossed the lawn and walked up the steps, accompanied by Harry and Mouse. I really wasn’t sure I wanted to do this, but Nelson had needed Harry’s help. _We_ might have still needed his help. It wasn’t like our parents hadn’t seen us since we’d got back, but Molly’s hair hadn’t been dyed yet. Mine was supposed to get dyed for tomorrow, but I had yet to do it.

Harry rang the bell, and Molly squeezed. She was nervous too. I could feel it from her, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t just an echo of my own innate fear of what might happen. Molly was probably right, after all. The odds of something attacking us while we were here were minimal, especially with both Harry and Daddy there. In fact, I almost pitied anything that would attack our house with a Knight of the Cross and one of the top twenty-five wizards in the world there. Then Molly and I would take care of whatever was left.

Neither of us were afraid of not being accepted. We knew our family, and while Mom might put up a stink about our clothes and Molly’s hair, she’d gotten most of it out of her system when she noticed the tattoos the first time we’d seen her when we got back to Chicago.

The door opened, revealing a dark-haired young man that stood only a little taller than my twin and I. Our brother, Daniel, actually looked like he’d bulked up a little since the last time we’d seen him a month ago. He had the body of a fencer that was looking to become something more. I couldn’t really say whether he was attractive or not, given our familial status, but I was sure that he’d be breaking hearts in no time. He wore a grey T-shirt with some brand name logo on it and a pair of navy blue jeans.

Daniel’s emotions when opening the door cycled from surprise to joy to joy tinged with a little bit of bitterness. I think there might have also been a little bit of embarrassment in there as he looked us over. The last time we’d seen our brother was two weeks ago, when we’d come to one of his summer matches to show our support. We’d worn significantly more conservative clothing then.

“… Molly, Faith… You’re here. You’re actually home.” Daniel walked over to us, and we wrapped him in a hug.

“Good to see you, Danny,” I said, running a hand through his dark hair.

“Should be seeing more of you.” Molly’s hand joined my own and then went down to rub his back. After a few seconds, we released him from the hug so that we could talk face-to-face. Well, sort of anyway. Neither Molly nor I had soulgazed our brother yet, and we had no intention to either.

“Not to sound ungrateful, but why now?” Daniel asked. The bitterness flared a little. Was this because he really wanted us there? Was it something else? “And why wearing _that_? Has Halloween come early or something?”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “Well, the answer to the first question is standing behind us. You remember Harry Dresden, right?”

Daniel nodded and somehow turned it into a greeting with a grunt. “And the clothes?”

“Not really any of your business, Danny Boy,” Molly said. “We’re here now, and I think Harry probably called ahead.”

“I did, actually,” Harry said, confirming Molly’s statement. He must have called before he came to pay the bail. It was the only thing that made sense. “I was thinking it should be a surprise, but calling ahead meant that we got to eat with your family.”

Mouse chuffed, and I got the feeling that the dog simply wanted to get attention to himself, something that he easily obtained from what I felt from Daniel.

“What is _that_?”

“My dog, Mouse,” Harry said. “He’s a special breed. Western Highland Dogasaurus. Maybe you’ve heard of it.”

Daniel shook his head. “That’s… Okay, Mister Dresden, there’s no way that Mom would let him in the house, but the backyard should be fine. I’ll walk around with you.”

“Where’s Mom and Daddy?” I asked. “I figured one of them would be answering the door.”

“Well, Dad’s working the grill out on the patio, which is where dinner will be, by the way, and Mom’s in the kitchen preparing the vegetables.” Daniel glanced inside. “You two mind going to the patio through the house? You can make sure the door closes properly on your way in since I’m taking Mister Dresden around.”

Molly nodded. “Where are the others?”

“Matthew, Alicia and Amanda are playing in the treehouse, and the little ones are running around back there.” Daniel gave each of us a hug again before walking over to Harry. “Come on, Mister Dresden.”

I looked up at the sky. The treehouse was lit well enough for this time of night, but it wasn’t exactly where I would have expected them to be. It must have been something to do with the late dinner combined with it being summer. No school the next day was a powerful motivator to stay up.

Molly and I entered the house and made our way through toward the back door. The house hadn’t changed much; most of the same furniture remained where it had been. Some toys littered the floor in the living room, a set of dolls and a couple action figures, and some rolled up carpets laid near the couch across from the television. Smells of sautéing vegetables wafted in from the kitchen where our mother utilized her element, like our father did with the grill.

We stepped out onto the back porch through the sliding glass door, and I looked toward the grill. The man working it turned toward us. He was nearly as tall as Harry, but he was built with much more muscle. His face spoke of his honesty, kindness and unwillingness to back down against those who would offer he and his any sort of violence. Warm grey eyes looked over us, and a smile formed on his strong jawline. He wore a pair of khaki pants and a light blue T-shirt at the moment, and overtop that he wore a black apron that had the phrase “Bless the chef” written on it in red cursive lettering. This was our father, Michael Carpenter, Knight of the Cross.

He closed the grill and hung the spatula on its side before crossing the patio in three large-gaited steps. He wrapped my sister and I into a hug which we both returned eagerly. It wasn’t quite as enthusiastic a hug as the one we’d received when we first met up with our parents after our leaving, but it was close.

“Daddy,” we said, wanting to say more.

“Shh… Not yet…” Daddy replied, rubbing our backs. The warmth radiating from my father, the pure unadulterated love that he had for us was almost burning in how strong it was. It felt wonderful and right, and I didn’t want the moment to end. “Let’s just hug for now.”

We pulled apart after about fifteen seconds. My eyes flicked to the grill. “So, what’s for dinner?”

“Burgers and bratwurst. Your mother is preparing some vegetables to go with them,” Daddy answered, and then he looked us over. While we’d spoken about the tattoos with him before, they hadn’t really been fully visible in the way that they were with the outfits we wore. I could feel the discomfort that came over him seeing us dressed as we were. I was pretty sure that he disapproved of it, but he wasn’t really trying to disapprove. “Faith Jessica Samantha Carpenter, Margaret Katherine Amanda Carpenter… just what are the two of you wearing?”

“Date clothes,” I provided glibly. I didn’t really want to deal with the disapproval, but if it was going to be there, might as well get it all out at once. “We didn’t exactly have the chance to change before coming here.”

“Date clothes,” Daddy repeated. “I knew about the tattoos, and the hair’s not really that bad, but…” Daddy shook his head. “Did Harry come with you?”

“Daniel was walking him and Mouse around from the front.” Molly and I flicked our eyes toward the gate, which was being opened exactly at that moment. “And there they are now.”

Mouse came through the gate first, followed by Daniel and harry a few seconds later. The large dog waited patiently for the other two though.

“I’ll go say hi. We’ll speak some more later.” Daddy asked.

Molly and I nodded, and Daddy went over to talk with Harry while Daniel nodded to us and went inside. I breathed out a slight sigh. Nothing bad had happened yet, and hopefully it wouldn’t. I looked up at the treehouse, where some of my siblings were, according to Daniel. I could feel three presences up inside, and after a second, I saw a pair of dark-haired heads poke up from inside, along with a blonde.

I looked about the yard to see where the other two jawas were hiding, but I couldn’t really spot the pair. Either the two were being sneaky, or I just wasn’t looking hard enough. Then I heard them.

“Molly! Faith!” shrieked a little girl’s voice, echoed shortly by that of a younger boy. I smiled as Molly and I turned our attention to the sources, and it wasn’t a moment too soon. We each had to catch a younger sibling, Molly with Hope and myself with Harry, giving each of them a hug. Hope was a little blonde girl, about six years old, and Harry was a dark-haired four-year-old. Both were adorable, and both wore a pair of jeans and a Tee-shirt, Hope in powder blue and Harry in red. The last time we’d seen these two was when we’d had a lunch date with our mother two months ago. She hadn’t been able to get them a sitter; thus we’d spent the afternoon with the three of them.

“Hey Harry,” I said with a grin, wrapping an arm around his waist and lifting him over my shoulder. My four-year-old brother giggled as I swung him about, and I noted Molly doing something similar with Hope. We both righted our siblings again, and I gave a grin to Hope. “Hobbit, Harry, how have—”

“—the two of you been?” Molly smiled at Harry, and we each ruffled the hair of the opposite sibling we’d picked up.

“Good,” Hope said. “We’ve been good for Daniel. He’s still not as good at being the boss as you two…”

“Uh-uh,” Harry shook his head. “Not as good. FaithMolly, why is Molly’s hair pink?”

“It’s blue too,” I said, pointing out the color.

Molly shrugged. “I thought it’d look neat.”

“And I still think it looks like cotton candy, even if the dye job looks good,” I said.

“Why is yours still blonde?” Hope asked.

“Because tomorrow hasn’t come yet,” Molly said, and I coughed.

“Because now you can tell the two of us apart,” I said. “My hair’s the more natural color while Molly went with silly colors.”

“I could always tell the two of you apart,” Mom said as she stepped out the door, carrying some plates of sautéed onions and mushrooms. “Even when dressed identically.”

I glanced over to Mom and winced internally. Mom’s feelings, much like Daniel’s cycled through a myriad of emotions in a short period of time, but the one that stuck out to me the most was a sense of disappointment and worry. I wasn’t entirely sure who the disappointment was directed at, but I hoped that it wasn’t us.

Honestly, it was easy to see where Molly and I got most of our looks from. Mom stood at about our height, maybe the tiniest bit shorter, if I was to be honest, and she was a striking woman. She was about as healthy and fit as we were, and I was certain that she probably was a little stronger. This was the woman that forged all of our father’s armor herself and sparred with him on a regular basis. She wore a blue sleeveless blouse and a long brown skirt that went down to about mid-thigh.

Mom walked over to put the plate down on the patio table, and she turned to us, looking us over. I was torn between feeling proud and feeling self-conscious, and what I could feel from my mother was… I really wasn’t sure. It wasn’t quite shame or disapproval, but it definitely wasn’t any sort of approval of how we looked.

“Mom,” I said, trying to offer a smile. “We’re here.”

“So you are,” Mom said, her lips twitching slightly. “I can see your father is talking with the wizard, now. And a rather large dog.”

Molly and I nodded. We could see the two of them and Mouse standing near the gate.

“The dog’s name is Mouse.” Molly smiled. “I don’t know how much the two of them need to say, but I’m sure they’ll be back over here soon enough.”

“Well, then we should speak quickly then,” Mom said. “Just what are the two of you wearing?”

I held up a hand. “Mom, we’re wearing what we chose to wear this morning, before we knew that we’d be coming here. Someone didn’t exactly give us a chance to go to our place and change.”

“If we’d had that chance, you would have tried to chicken out,” Molly said. “Mom, sometimes we wear these types of things, and we enjoy it.”

Okay, now that was a sensation I recognized from Mom. Frustration and a mix between worry and annoyance bubbled up under the surface. She definitely didn’t exactly approve of the clothing we were wearing, and she knew we knew. It was the tattoo discussion all over again. I didn’t want to repeat that one right now.

“You look like…” Mom shook her head, breathing out slowly. I don’t think she wanted a repeat of the tattoo discussion either. “No, what’s important is that you’re here now. You’re here, and I want you here.”

Molly smiled. “Thank you, Momma. We’d have been back sooner, but…” She gestured to me.

I looked to Hope and Harry, who had gone quiet to watch this discussion. I knew that they were paying attention since I could feel their worry. I couldn’t remember if they were there the previous year when I’d made the decision to leave, but that could easily have been why they were so worried. I looked back to my mother, and I frowned. I felt some contemplation from my mother and it matched the look on her face.

“Faith, Molly, I want the two of you to know that you’re always welcome,” Mom said, wrapping the two of us up in a hug. “Always.”

I closed my eyes, but while my sister returned the hug, I didn’t. I wasn’t sure I was worthy of it. I didn’t think that we should be there, not when things… I didn’t think Mom got it. I’d need to explain it to her, but I couldn’t stand to be the one to put her or anyone else in danger by being here. Molly understood a little, and I could count on her to defend herself, but what about our siblings?

_Fai, hug Mom. Now._ Molly’s voice carried a hint of consternation, and I sighed, wrapping my arms around my mother.

“Well, isn’t that sweet to see?” Harry said. He hadn’t exactly been all that quiet, but my focus had been primarily on my mother and siblings that I missed him and Daddy coming over to the patio. Daddy had gone back over to the grill to tend it.

“Mr. Dresden,” Mom said as she released the hug. “You’re looking… what did happen to you today?”

“You should see the other guy,” Harry said. “Hello, Charity.”

“Harry, you remember Hope and your namesake, right?” Molly said, gesturing to the two. “We should let you get reintroduced to the rest of the family… After all, they haven’t seen you in a while.”

Mom looked to Molly and then to me, giving each of us a slight nod as feelings of approval rose in her a little. She still didn’t really like Harry, and Molly giving her the ability to not have to deal with him was likely the reason for the approval. As Molly took Harry over toward the treehouse, I moved closer to my mother.

“We’re not here to stay,” I murmured. “There’s… something that came up at the convention, something we need to deal with.”

“With the help of the wizard, I presume,” Mom said, some worry coloring her voice.

“Molly called him in. It’s… I’m not sure what it is, but it’s something familiar.”

“Is it dangerous?” Mom asked, and I gave her an incredulous look. She shook her head. “Of course it is. Harry Dresden is involved. The man is drawn to danger like a moth to a flame.”

“I’m…” I frowned. I really didn’t want to lie to her and say that it wasn’t dangerous, not again. Of course, I couldn’t stay. I wanted to, desperately, but I couldn’t. Not if it meant putting the rest of the family in danger.

“I don’t like the two of you in danger, Faith. You’re my children, and I want you as safe as possible.” Mom shook her head. “I could forbid the two of you from leaving, but you’d just end up doing so anyway. The tighter I’d grab onto you, the more you’d slip away.”

I choked down a laugh, or maybe a sob at Mom’s emotions. The love and worry that I felt from her… she was scared for us. She was genuinely frightened of losing us. Of losing me. What could I say to that? I couldn’t promise anything. Mom knew when marrying our father that there was the chance, every time he went out on one of his missions, that he wouldn’t return. I knew it, and so did the rest of the family. I think the only ones who didn’t actually comprehend it were our youngest siblings. We all worried about Daddy, and now Molly and I added to that worry. How were we supposed to alleviate that?

“Dinner’s ready,” Daddy called, ending that train of thought. I moved to help carry the food to the patio table as everyone started pulling up chairs and benches.

After placing two plates down, two pairs of arms wrapped around my waist, and I smiled at my younger sisters. “Alicia, Amanda… It’s good to see you.”

“Missed you,” Amanda said in a sing-song manner, and Alicia nodded, agreeing with our younger sister. I hadn’t seen these two for about three weeks, when Molly and I’d managed to catch one of Alicia’s soccer games. She’d managed to win, and I’d bought the two of them and Matthew some ice cream in celebration. Mom had been there too, but it had been important that Molly and I spent time with our siblings.

“Yeah,” I said, running a hand through Alicia’s short-cut dark hair and then Amanda’s blonde. “New glasses, Alicia?”

“Yeah, they are.” She adjusted her black-rimmed frames as she backed off of me. Though she was stoic-looking, her feelings were closer to joy at seeing me than just seriousness. “Are you back to stay?”

I shook my head. “Not right now, sorry. Maybe soon though.”

Alicia nodded, a flare of hurt rising in her sharp enough to make me wince. Maybe she could tell that I’d lied there, or maybe she just wanted Molly and I back properly. I couldn’t really tell one way or the other, but until I could be sure they were safe, I wasn’t coming back.

“All right.” Alicia adjusted her glasses again. “What’s with Molly’s hair?”

“Did you not ask her?” I asked.

“I did,” Amanda said. “She said that you dyed it for her.”

“Well, I did do that, but she chose the colors. Makes it easier to tell us apart, I suppose,” I said. “She doesn’t even have the excuse of a costume.”

“Costume?” Alicia asked.

“We’re helping out with a convention this weekend, and I’m going to be in costume for two days of it,” I said. “A really cool one too. I’ll see if I can get someone to take a picture of me in it.”

“Then I could draw it, I think.” Amanda smiled. She was getting mature for her age. “Almost dinnertime.”

I glanced away from them, toward Daniel and Matthew, who were finishing pulling up another bench so we could all have seats. Matthew offered me a smile and a nod while Daniel nodded but left his face serious. He and I would have to have a chat later if we had time. I took my seat on the left of Molly with Amanda sitting on the other side of me. Daddy sat at the head of the table with Mom to his right and Molly to his left. Harry the younger was in a booster seat next to Mom with Hope next to him, followed by Matthew. Daniel sat on the other side of Amanda, and Alicia sat across from him. Harry the wizard sat across from our father, at the other end of the table, and he had a smile on his face. It must have been something with seeing a family scene like this one, I guessed. The amount of joy at this table permeated through my shields somewhat, and I found a smile on my own face.

“Before we eat, I’d like to lead us in prayer,” Daddy said, and we all bowed our heads, even Harry. “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Merciful Father, I would like to thank You for all of the gifts that You have given our family, today and every day. Seeing my eldest daughters home again, for a meal with their family brings me great joy, and I know it is through Your Will that it is allowed. We thank You for the gift of family, friendship, and this bountiful meal that we are about to eat. We thank you for our continued safety as those of us perform Your Will allow themselves to be put at its mercy. We ask for Your continued protection and blessings in the course of our lives. We ask that you bless those here and our meal as we pray:”

Here, we all joined in save for Harry. “Bless us, Oh Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

I opened my eyes as I crossed myself, and I looked to my father. An odd look had come over his face as he was crossing himself, and I felt a sense of acceptance from him.

“When?” I asked, looking my father in the eyes. Silence reigned over the table as everyone joined me in looking to him. Worry began to cut through the joy that we all felt. We knew that Daddy needed to do this, but it was still hard.

“I’ve got some time,” Daddy said. “But before the night is up, I will need to leave.”

  



	8. Chapter Eight

At Daddy’s pronouncement, we all were a little shocked. We’d seen him get called before, but not usually at the beginning of a meal. At least he had time to enjoy it with us, but it still sucked. What sucked worse was something a little more relevant to Molly and I. Did he really need to be called away at the beginning of this investigation? Wouldn’t he have been very helpful with dealing with whatever was going on? Sure, he couldn’t really help with the Venatori bits, but if there was something else beyond it, he could have helped with that. Of course, we couldn’t really focus on that. Not right now, not when we were here to enjoy dinner together.

“So, Amanda, how’s school?” Harry started up the conversation, directing his attention to my second youngest sister.

“Art’s pretty fun, Bill.” Amanda took a bite of her zucchini, and then she smiled. “I like your dog. He’s huge!”

“Yeah, I think he’s some kind of Dogasaurus. Hard to believe he was small enough to fit in my pocket when I got him. That’s why his name’s Mouse.” Harry held his hands a little apart from each other, clearly indicating Mouse’s size as a puppy. “And my name’s Harry, actually.”

“Well you know my name, but we already have a Harry.” She gestured at our youngest brother, who waved his hot dog eagerly. “That’s why you’re Bill.”

“Hi Bill! I’m Harry!” My youngest brother bit his hot dog. “And Mouf! Bib Dockie!”

“Harry, don’t talk with your mouth full,” Mom said, wiping my younger brother’s face with a napkin. “Mister Dresden, I… never mind…” Mom shook her head, and I could feel a sense of resignation in her before she turned to help my youngest sister with her meal.

Molly squeezed my hand before digging into her own food. Matthew smiled at me before turning to Daniel to talk about… some video game or another. Sounded like some sort of crossover game where they took a set of beloved children’s movies and combined them with some sort of popular roleplaying game series. I vaguely remembered playing a game like that once, but I couldn’t remember if it was in this life or the last.

Speaking of that last life, I closed my eyes, thinking. I remembered something related to the events going on here, but I wasn’t sure exactly what it was. Something about Molly and Harry… Daddy helping both of them out? I couldn’t remember specifics. The one real downside to having memories of a past life? Having them replaced by memories of the current one. I lived that life almost eighteen years ago, and sometimes I can barely remember what I had for breakfast on a day. I was certain that I knew something related to what was going on, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember exactly what it was.

Molly nudged me. _Fai, you should pay attention._

_Thinking._ I sent back, but I opened my eyes, and I looked around the table. Most of my siblings were focused on their food, but I noticed a few not-so-surreptitious glances heading mine and Molly’s way. It might have been the outfits or the fact that we were actually here for dinner. _Did I miss a question or something?_

“—all right, Faith?” Oh. Harry. The adult Harry, not the kid Harry, was the one asking. My former mentor, not my brother. Judging from the concern wafting off of him, he was asking if I was all right.

“Yeah, sorry… just was thinking,” I said, looking around the table. “Do you know where you’re going, Daddy?”

“I’ll know when I get there. That’s how it goes,” he said. He smiled at me after that. “All will turn out as it’s supposed to. Have a little faith.” He paused for a second. “Of course mine isn’t so little anymore, now is she?”

“Daddy…” Molly and I groaned simultaneously. Did he really have to do that joke? “That was bad.”

Of course, Harry laughed. Why wouldn’t he laugh? Harry’s sense of humor was that of a two-year-old. Wait, was Mom laughing too? It really wasn’t all that funny. Of course, Mom laughing meant that it was okay for the others to laugh. Harry started imitating his namesake pretty soon, and Hope joined him. We couldn’t believe that they found this funny or that they really got it, but the laughter was infectious. Soon, everyone at the table (and the dog next to it) was laughing. Honestly, it wasn’t that we really found the joke funny, but we needed the laughter. It helped to alleviate the worry that had been the undercurrent of the conversation for the night, admittedly not fully, but some. The rest of the dinner conversation was a little more lighthearted, to try and keep that feeling going.

Eventually though, the laughs had to end and so did the dinner. Molly and I helped Mom clean up and get the jawas inside so they could get ready for bed. Mom and Daddy knew that we weren’t going to be staying the night ourselves, and Harry definitely wasn’t so they didn’t insist on us doing something similar. Molly and I gave each of our siblings a hug and a kiss on the cheek, promising that we’d speak with them more later if not that we’d move back. My reasons for leaving still existed. Until that changed, or until I could… until I could find a reason, there was no way that I’d be willing to move back. Which meant that Molly wouldn’t move back. Probably.

I ended up helping my father with gathering his armor and things so he could be ready as Harry called a cab. I’d helped him with the armor before, and it was on my suggestion that we got the Kevlar in there. Of course, I was pretty sure that Mom thought of it anyway and she was just letting me pretend that she didn’t. Mom was the professional, after all. Still, as I looked at each piece of armor, helping my father pack it, I frowned. There was more I could do for this.

“Daddy, can I see your breastplate for a second?” I held out my hand for it, thinking over what I wanted to do. It couldn’t weaken the structural integrity of the armor, and I doubted it would anyway.

“Here, Faith.” My father passed it to me, and I tensed slightly as the weight of the armor hit my arms. This was just the chest piece, with its red Templar Cross painted on it. Perfect. “What did you need it for?”

I fished a piece of chalk out of my boot and I drew a small circle on the ground, laying the armor inside it. I then drew a larger circle around that circle that I could stand in. “I’m going to see if I can make it a little better for you. The worst that could happen here is that it fails, but it really shouldn’t.”

I snapped both of the circles closed with an effort of will, and I managed to prevent a wince at a loss of connection to my sister. We’d done this before, and we could do it again. The plan was an enchantment for my father’s armor, something to let it absorb and dissipate more energy than the metal and Kevlar combination alone could. Done properly, it would mean that the armor could stop large caliber bullets in addition to the smaller rounds that it already could. I wasn’t sure I had the time to layer the enchantments to do that perfectly, but at the least I could give my father a bit of a boost.

I held my hands over the circle containing the armor and I gathered my will, mentally forming the basis for the enchantment. Some of this I’d learned from Harry, some from my own experimentation, and some I learned another way. Laying an enchantment on an already completed piece without making any major modifications to it was difficult, but it wasn’t impossible. The modifications were a mnemonic, anyway. Without the actual modifications to do, what I did was layer it in my mind, placing runes and symbols within a circle, assembling it with the will and desire for what I wanted the enchantment to do. Protection. My father would be protected.

“ _Scutien Deisus!_ ” I released my will, pouring magic into the enchantment as I laid it on the armor. With a simple movement of my hands, I broke the inner circle, laying the enchantment upon my father’s armor. The red Templar Cross etched into the breastplate began to glow a brilliant crimson as I continued to weave the enchantment. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the glow began to fade. I smiled, and I looked at the armor, extending my senses to look it over. The enchantment managed to grasp on. Normally I would have preferred to actually do the work and inscribe the runes. It was more energy efficient, and it didn’t take as much out of me. Unfortunately, Daddy didn’t have the time, nor did I. “It should have better protection now.”

I slowly turned to look away from the armor, and I tried to make it look easy to keep myself standing. I blinked when I noticed that my father was not alone. Somehow, while I was focused on casting, Harry and Molly had joined my father outside the circle. Molly, seeing that I was done, moved forward to break it, and she wrapped an arm around me, both to reinforce our link and to help me support myself. Molly knew that a relatively quick and dirty job like this one would take something out of me, even if it took twenty minutes to do in the first place. The two of us smiled in unison, stepping away from the center of the circle, and smudging the chalk up off of the ground.

“Enchantments now, Faith?” Harry asked as he came over to examine the armor. He pointedly looked down at the breastplate, and I could feel him reaching out with his senses to take a look. I noted that he didn’t use his Sight, which probably was a good thing. He looked back over to me, and I felt a flash of concern that quickly faded from my senses. “Not too shabby for makeshift work.”

I nodded. “If I’d had more time, I’d be able to make it last longer.” I turned to my father. “Daddy, it should probably make it through at least tomorrow’s sunrise. I’d need to sit down and work with it for a few days if we wanted it to last longer than that. Maybe when you get back, I can do some work on the rest of it, better prepare you for the next time.”

“It’s more than I could have asked for,” Daddy said as he gathered up the breastplate and put it into his bag. “Thank you. Make sure that you’re protecting yourself equally as well.”

“Daddy,” Molly said. “Come back to us, okay?”

“If the Lord wills it, I shall.” Daddy stepped forward, wrapped an arm around each of us, and he kissed our foreheads. “I don’t know exactly why you don’t want to move back in, but I can assure you that you’re wanted.”

I tried not to wince. I hadn’t told either of our parents the exact reasons that I left, and I could feel Harry’s contemplation. Molly squeezed my waist a small bit in support, and the two of us said in unison. “We love you, Daddy.”

“And I love the two of you.”

A car’s horn could be heard from out front, and Harry cleared his throat. “Well, it looks like our ride is here. Why don’t the two of you grab Mouse and meet me out front?”

I wanted to reply defiantly, but I actually liked Mouse. Plus, it looked like Harry really wanted to talk with our father for some reason, so I followed Molly when she headed out back. Mouse lounged on the patio, gnawing at a T-bone from one of the steaks my father had prepared, looking rather content in general. The jawas had loved him, and now he was eating steak. Waves of gratitude wafted off the dog, along with a feeling that I could only describe as the equivalent of “Compliments to the Chef.”

The moment we got close, Mouse stood.

“Yeah, it’s time to go,” I said, acknowledging Mouse’s feelings. The dog chuffed and picked up the bone, bringing it over to the outdoor trash can and dropping it inside.

“Okay, that’s a little awesome,” Molly said, and I agreed with a smile. “Ready to go, Mouse?”

Mouse chuffed, and he came over to us, leash held in his mouth. When he got close, I took the leash, and the three of us walked out of the yard around the house where the cab was waiting. Molly, Mouse and I piled into the back seat of the cab, and Harry climbed into the passenger seat, giving the cabbie directions.

“Wait, that’s to your place, not the convention’s hotel,” I said.

“Yeah, well, I need to get some things before we do the investigation.” Harry glanced over his seat. “And I doubt they’d let me bring Mouse into the hotel, so he needs to get dropped off.”

“I suppose that’s true,” I said, scratching the dog behind the ears. The cab started moving. We spoke of inconsequential things on the way to Harry’s apartment, nothing major. None of us wanted to worry about Molly’s and my father; so we left where he was going and any sort of speculation out of the conversation. Instead, we spoke about movies, and we even got into a small argument about which Star Wars was the best. Harry said _Jedi_ , but Molly and I preferred _Empire_. The three of us agreed that the prequels were an abomination with pretty special effects and not much else. Molly and I hadn’t yet seen the third prequel, but judging from the first two of the trilogy, it wouldn’t be any better. It was almost like old times, but the specter of the argument hung over our conversation and made it hard to enjoy it. We got to Harry’s apartment building as Harry was warming up to do a Jar Jar Binks impersonation, and I’d never been so thankful for a cabbie to tell us we were there.

Harry indicated that he wanted us to follow him indoors and rather than argue with him, I simply followed. I still needed to tell him what I saw, what I felt. I suspected there was more to it as well. When we got out, Harry told the cabbie to keep the meter running, and then we started down the stairs toward Harry’s basement apartment.

Harry Dresden lives in the basement apartment of an older tenement not far from downtown. It’s not really a big place, even if it’s admittedly bigger than the one Molly and I shared. It’s mostly a fairly large, roomy living room with a miniature kitchen set in an alcove opposite the front door. Immediately to the right when you come in is the door to Harry’s bedroom and bathroom with a redbrick fireplace set in the wall beside it. The stone walls of his apartment are lined with bookshelves, tapestries and movie posters of all sorts. The one that Harry’s probably the proudest of is his original Star Wars poster, and that was hanging above the mantel of the fireplace.

A couple of older couches were set in the living room, a couple easy chairs by the fireplace, and a coffee table round it out. There’s no electricity in the apartment, and given the time of night, it was mostly dark when Harry opened the door. With a mutter of “ _Flickum Bicus_ ,” and a little bit of magic, Harry lit a number of candles that had been set on prominent areas to give light to the apartment. Mouse made his way over to the coffee table, and when Harry set foot into the apartment, his shins were shoulder-checked by a thirty-pound feline.

Said cat simply brushed up against my leg and then Molly’s before moving over to where Mouse stood and nudging him out of the way. Cats. Mister was a stubby-tailed big one that Harry managed to get when he was a kitten. I greatly suspected that he was a Maine Coon, but I wasn’t really one to be able to tell.

“Sit down,” Harry gestured at the couches. “We need to talk.”

I made my way over and sat, Molly repeating my motion. “Okay. What about?”

“Well, first, if I’m going to be investigating this, I’m going to need what you saw as well, Faith.”

I nodded, expecting that. I recounted my version of the events, including the fear aura, the three presences, and the way that one of them disappeared. None of it would be admissible in court, of course, but to someone like Harry, someone who knew how the world really worked, it was invaluable.

“Fear… There’s a few things that like to use that,” Harry said. “It’ll take a little to figure out.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I couldn’t really figure it… But it was an overpowering thing to my senses.”

“And mine. I could feel an echo of it through Fai on the other side of the hotel.” Molly wrapped a hand around my own. “It shouldn’t be there, whatever it is.”

Harry nodded. “Well, at least we aren’t going in completely blind. Now, I’ve got just one more question: why did you guys leave home? Where did you go? I mean, I understand that, after our argument, you wanted some space from me, Faith. But that doesn’t really explain the running away from home bit.”

Molly squeezed my hand again, and I looked to Harry, avoiding his eyes. We needed to give him something. Neither of us had told anyone the real reasons we left yet. “I… I didn’t want to put my family in danger because of something that I did. We’d faced someone… something that was way outside of what we should have faced, and Drew got hurt. I didn’t want the same thing to happen to any of the family.”

“I followed Fai because we need each other, and I was the only one who could probably talk her into coming back. When she was ready, of course,” Molly said, giving my hand another squeeze and me a smile. “We needed some time outside the city, away from everything to get our heads straight.”

Harry frowned, but we could feel some sympathy from him. We hadn’t really gone into any specifics, but he seemed to get it. At least, he got what we wanted him to from it. “I see… It seems like Drew managed to get a grip on his situation.”

And then he went to try and make light of the situation with Drew again. It was purely through the grace of my sister that I didn’t actually get angry, but the two of us definitely groaned. “Harry…”

The wizard held up his arms in mock surrender. A flash of sympathy flared up within him along with a bit of guilt. Yeah. You try dealing with it. “Yeah, I know, I get it. You faced your first real baddie on your own, and it scared you. Not because of what it can do to you but because of what it could do to others.”

“Yeah,” I said, agreeing with his assessment. It might not have been fully right, but it was close enough. Harry stood, slipped on his duster and grabbed his staff.

“Well, the real question shouldn’t be what might happen because you’re there? The question should be, what might happen if you aren’t?” Harry smoothed out his duster and ran his hand down his staff before gripping it somewhere near its center. He then gestured to us. “Come on, meter’s running and we have a convention to get back to.”

  



	9. Chapter Nine

We’d gotten to the hotel that SplatterCon!!! took place in not long after that, and I was happy to see that the crowd hadn’t abated much since we’d left. Perhaps the thing with Pell hadn’t dissuaded anyone from coming, or perhaps news hadn’t quite gotten around through the various media outlets about it yet. Either way, I could see a couple hundred people milling about the lobby and even more entering the various media rooms that we’d set up. I couldn’t help but smile with the pride that both Molly and I felt. We’d helped to get this achieved, to get this set up. I wouldn’t let any supernatural thing ruin this for us. Not for Sandy who’d put so much work into it.

Harry seemed to be looking around with interest, at least in the way that he usually did. He kept somewhat drawn in on himself, careful not to bang his elbows into anyone, eyes flicking from person to person. Sometimes I wondered what must be going on in that head and how much he actually took in, but then I remembered that in some cases I almost knew. Harry Dresden wasn’t a good private investigator purely because he was a wizard. He had the actual skills to back it up.

“You know,” Harry said, turning toward my sister and I. “I kind of thought there’d be more people.”

“Well, it is late,” I said.

“And Thursday night,” Molly added. “There’s more than three thousand people already registered.”

“Before you ask, that’s a good amount for a first-year convention. Especially one with as young a staff as we have,” I said as we continued walking.

“First-year? How long did this take to set up?”

“Well, with the staff we have, it didn’t take a super long time,” Molly said. “We’ve got a mixture of people who are veterans at conventions for their age, like Jordan Byrne, the theater coordinator. He worked on last year’s ACen team.”

“Drea, that is, Andrea Becton, too, our Director of Exhibits. She’s running a few of the panels here, and she’s done similar things at conventions like C+A+D. Brian Ramon is our PR guy. He’s the one handling all the social media and general media outputs. He’s on MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, interfacing with everyone he can.”

“Social media? Facebook? Twitter?” Harry asked.

“Computer things,” Molly and I said in unison. “Just because we can’t use them doesn’t mean that we don’t know anything about them anymore.”

“Does that really work?”

“Well, it’s starting to,” I said. “I bet that in the next ten years or so, it’ll really take off, but in the meantime, it’s probably part of what helped us get the amount of people we have.”

“Yeah, it’s very useful,” Molly said. “Let’s see, who else… Taylor Barnes is our Director of Merchandising. She was responsible for getting the Dealers’ Room all set up and ready for the various horror memorabilia that is being sold.”

I glanced and saw a couple of attractive young women, each dressed in black-and-purple skintight clothing that bared just the right amount of skin, sidle by. Each of them had prettily made-up faces, pale with trickles of fake blood in their mouths. One of them offered a smile to Harry, the other smiled at me. The fake fangs visible in their mouths weren’t the greatest; I could see the fingerprints and deformation that came from custom jobs that weren’t handled right. Still, they looked pretty good.

The hairs on the back of my neck and on my arm started to prickle as the smell of slightly sulfuric wood smoke wafted into my nose. I looked to Harry, and I saw that the wizard had placed his hand in his staff, in an effort to use it. The runes etched into sides of his implement had not yet started glowing or doing anything more than the smoke, but I could feel Harry’s emotions shifting. He started with surprise, a hint of fear and restrained anger, and then his feelings shifted again, as if he were forcing the anger down.

_Fai, is he…_ Molly frowned at the girls as they walked away. I, for my part, kept an eye on my mentor.

“Harry, are you okay?”

“It’s… been a long day,” Harry said. “Sorry. Look, you know where I need to go. The bathroom where the guy was attacked.”

“Yeah, but we can’t go there first. You’ll need a nametag.” I gestured toward the registration desk.

“Basically if you haven’t registered, you’re not supposed to be here. A nametag or a button like ours will let both con security and hotel security know you’re good. Makes things more convenient for your investigation.”

“I suppose. Good thinking. Convenience isn’t a bad thing.” Harry smiled.

“Besides, who else are we going to use our freebies on?” I asked. “I mean, I suppose I could ask—”

“If you say Becca there, I swear I’ll bop you, Fai.”

“Well, Drew’s staff, so’s Rosie and Drea. Ken’s Rosie’s freebie. Nelson’s staff. Only person I could ask is Becca unless we wanted to ask Danny or Mattie.”

“I warned you.” Molly moved toward me, open hand at the ready.

“Ladies,” Harry said. “Can we focus please? I need to get registered, right?”

Molly poked me in the arm, and I shook my head. _You’re getting bopped later_.

“Right, Harry,” I said. “Just this way.”

We took Harry over to where the registration tables were set up. The general line for registration had more or less disappeared, given the time of night. Anyone who was going to be here tonight had likely already registered and come. Each of the registration tables were clearly marked with segments of the alphabet, and sitting down at the first was Sandy.

“Faith, Molly,” she said, and I felt the warmth in her. She was clearly glad to see us. “Who’s your friend?”

I gestured to Molly, and she smiled. “Harry Dresden, this is Sandra Marling. She’s the convention chair.”

“You’re a horror fan?” Sandy asked Harry, and I could already feel the trouble awakening.

I glanced to Molly, ignoring the rest of the conversation. _Hey, Moll. You mind taking him to the bathroom the incident happened in?_

_Not really,_ Molly shrugged ever so slightly, but she was paying attention to Harry and his lack of enthusiasm for the event. “Sandy, I want to use my freebie for Harry, here.” _Why don’t you want to do it?_

_Well, it’s—_

“Oh, Rosanna was looking for the two of you a few minutes ago. Have either of you spoken to her yet?” Sandra cut in.

“Not yet,” I said. “I haven’t seen her since this afternoon. She remembered her vitamins, right?”

“Yes, I made sure of it. Don’t worry,” Sandy said, and warm relief passed over me.

“Thank you,” Molly said with a smile. She was relieved too. Like I’d said before, Rosie could be a bit of an airhead on things she needed to take.

“I’ll go on and find her,” I said, looking at Harry and my sister. “Molly can take you where you need to go.”

“You sure?” Harry asked.

I shrugged. “I’d rather not go back there right now, anyway.”

“Okay. Meet back here in an hour, please.” Harry turned back toward the registration form that he’d been handed by Sandy.

“Fine, fine.” I waved and started toward where I was pretty sure Rosie had gone. Of course, I had a little bit of ease at cheating to find her. All I needed to do was follow her emotional signature, something that was easy enough for me to recognize given how often I’d seen it the past few months. Doing it without lowering my shields made it harder, but I wasn’t going to do something like that in the middle of an active convention. Again, anyway.

Still, it didn’t take me all that long to find the room that Rosie had gone into, accompanied by Drea and Rosie’s boyfriend, Ken. The three of them had gone in the first of the mini-theaters set up on this side of the hall. Inside, the projector was playing one of the Suburban Slasher movies. I think it was _Suburban Slasher VI: Time Reaps for No Man_. Of course, with how many movies in that franchise there are, it really could have been any of them.

Upon entering the theater hall, I looked it over. The room was set up much like the other halls that I had inspected earlier. It was about sixty feet by thirty, with a projection screen on the far end of the hall. The chairs were set up in two columns for easier movement, and at a point in the aisle between them, the projector sat between them. On one of the walls was a drawing, much like the ones in the other rooms, depicting what was probably the artist’s favorite scene from the Suburban Slasher series. Near the screen, I could see a bit of reflected light coming off a small wall mirror. Someone hadn’t covered that up properly. I’d have to get that fixed later.

I knew my trio of friends were in here, but I couldn’t quite make them out right away. There were about thirty people in the theater watching, but the room could easily handle three times the amount. Several people were still in costume, and as I looked for my friends, I noticed a few of them. It looked like a couple of the vampire cosplayers from a similar group to earlier had decided that they’d wanted to watch this film. Oh, that guy’s Freddy Krueger sweater was awesome, but I was pretty sure that the one from the actual movie wasn’t a turtleneck. Ah well, you work with what you have. The guy wasn’t wearing the mask at the moment, which I really didn’t blame him for. Latex masks get hot in the summer, even inside with the AC. There was a person in the far chair with a metallic pyramid occupying the seat next to him. I was sure that on the floor, there was some sort of prop weapon. Probably a blade. There were some others in there that I noticed as well. A handicapped sandy-haired man sat in his wheelchair at the edge of a row. An old woman was sitting near the door, and there were a number of others that I couldn’t clearly make out. Now, where were they? I continued surveying the crowd. Oh, there they were. Back row.

I made my way over to my friends and when Drea spotted me, she scooted over so that there was an empty seat between her and Rosie. I took it with a smile, and I looked at the screen for a second before turning to my pregnant friend. On the opposite side of Rosie was her boyfriend, Ken. Ken was a sandy-haired light-skinned young man in his late teens or early twenties, and when standing he stood at barely taller than my sister and I. I supposed that he was attractive, but my standards for male attraction are skewed. He wore a SplatterCon!!! T-shirt with a nametag placed on it saying “HI MY NAME IS… The first victim.” It was too dark to see any of his other clothes.

“So Rosie,” I said in a hushed manner. “Sandy said you were looking for Molly and me?”

“Mm-hmm…” Rosie kept her voice quiet as well. “I think I only have one dose of the medicinal tea left. When I spoke with Drew before you left, he said that you or Molly needed to be there with him in order to get more of it.”

I winced slightly. “Yeah. Is it helping? It should be helping.”

“Yeah. It helps a lot,” Rosie said. “I haven’t really had any desire to—”

“Yeah, I know,” I cut her off. “I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, take half a dose tonight and then the other half tomorrow with your morning vitamins.”

Rosie hugged me. “Thank you, Faith.”

Another pair of arms joined Rosie’s from the other side, along with a little bit of giggling by my ear. “This a private hug or can I join in?”

“Really?” I hissed out. “You know I went out on a date with Drew today, right?”

“I also know that the two of you aren’t together right now,” Drea said smugly. “Which means I have a chance. I know you’ve been looking.”

I facepalmed. “Drea…”

“I’m kidding, Fai. Well, mostly,” Drea said letting me go with one of her arms and situating the other behind my back. “I know how you and Drew are together. There’s a lot there. I wouldn’t want to prevent that, even if it meant having you.”

I smiled. “Thanks, Drea.”

“Shh...” Ken said from the other side of Rosie. “The best part’s coming up.”

I turned toward the screen and watched. If I remembered right, this was the Suburban Slasher movie with the infamous Hot Tub scene, where the Reaper managed to catch those lonely heart teens in their hot tub, and he got it running red with their blood while the jets were going. All in all, it was a pretty good special effect for what was essentially a B movie, and it made for a great time on a Thursday Night with friends.

Now, the movies with the Reaper weren’t exactly _that_ scary, but there’s something fun about letting yourself be a little scared, letting yourself go with the jump scares. I found myself clenching my hand down on the metal of the chair I was sitting on as I watched, and it seemed like the AC had finally begun to kick in, just as the Reaper was getting ready to surprise those teens in their hot tub. The first rule of horror movies definitely applied there…

That… Okay… That wasn’t from the film. Something was twigging my energy senses, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up and goosebumps to form on my arm. I looked around at my friends. “Guys, we should go.”

“But this is the best part, Faith,” Drea said, gesturing to the screen, and I shivered again. No, I knew that feeling. That wasn’t right. I opened my senses, and I felt around. Magic was in the air, and I didn’t like the feeling. It felt way too similar to earlier, with Nelson. The fear aura wasn’t there, but I could feel an energy that seemed related. It was coming from this… I just… I clenched my fist.

Then, as the Reaper made his full-bodied entrance onto the screen, the projector cut out, and the lights dimmed. There was just one issue.

The Reaper stood there, sickle gleaming in the dim light. _In front of the screen_.

  



	10. Chapter Ten

It really shouldn’t have been possible, but I couldn’t deny what I saw. Standing at the front of the room, directly in front of the very screen showing his film, was the Reaper, the slash-happy star of the _Suburban Slasher_ series. He was probably taller than Harry, nearly seven feet tall at least, and muscles thickened from hours of physical labor. The Reaper wore overalls, a blue shirt, and a hockey mask. In his right hand, he held a long, curved sickle whose blade gleamed even in this light. I’d seen cosplays of the Reaper before, but none of them ever had this presence, this aura of murder. No, deep in my bones I knew that, impossible as it may have seemed, this _was_ the Reaper.

For the briefest of instances, the room was silent. The Reaper stood stoic as the lights dimmed further, a murky black creeping in through the shadows. The emergency lighting cast dim halos when the murk managed to cover them, and the murk kept creeping, as the Reaper just stood there. What was it doing? It hadn’t moved a single muscle yet, and neither had I. It licked at my senses, the fear, the anger. Most in the audience seemed surprised, just as I was, but the inky murk that continued spreading had them worried.

“We need to move…” I hissed out to my friends. “Before—”

The Reaper _moved_ , swinging his sickle. The metallic chime it made as it passed through the air was nothing compared to the tearing thunk it made when it dug into the young woman sitting close to the screen. He dragged the sickle down and through her abdomen before throwing her to the floor. Then the screaming started. People scrambled out of their chairs, moving away from the Reaper. Oh, God… I could feel it. I could feel the woman’s fear spiking along with everyone else in the room, and I could feel her life slipping away. No. There wasn’t anything I could do… Oh…. Oh nononono…. Where? Why couldn’t… why couldn’t I? Where was Molly? Why couldn’t I feel her? Okay. This wasn’t the first time I’d been separated from her. I’d worry about that after living through this. Stars and stones… Molly… Okay. Focus.

I reinforced my shields. My friends tugged my arms and I shook my head, turning toward them.

“Down to the floor, back against the wall…” I hissed out, keeping my voice from quavering, reaching my gloved hands toward Rosie and Drea, trusting Ken to do the same. I gestured toward the ground. “Don’t go toward the door. Just stay out of his way.”

“How?” Drea whispered. God, I could feel her fear too, one note in a chorus of it yet clearly identifiable even through my shields. I couldn’t even blame her. Without Molly, I felt close to the same. “He just…”

“Down,” Ken said quietly. “Listen to Faith.”

The four of us ducked to the ground, as the Reaper threw a person across the room. I could barely make out some people trying for the door, but the Reaper barreled through the crowd between him and the door to step in their way, crossing the room in a much shorter amount of time than the apparent speed he moved should have allowed. He dug his sickle into the man’s arm and threw him back into the center of the room. The voice of a girl near the Reaper was cut off as he grabbed her throat. The Reaper threw her into another chair, calmly walking toward another victim. I didn’t want to look at the other people as they scrambled over one another, not each not wanting to be the next person caught by the looming maniac. It was like someone had screamed “Fire” in a crowded theater, only this time there was actually something to run away from.

What was this thing? It couldn’t really be the Reaper, but it _was_. God… some of those people were dying. I could feel it, their pain and anguish, the desperation and rising sense of hopelessness, and through it all was the undercurrent of fear. The fear just permeated the room. Hell’s bells, I could _taste_ it. Ash and decay, blood and dust settled on my tongue, and the Reaper just kept going, never slowing nor stopping. If I could have felt Molly, I could have shared this with her to stay saner, but I couldn’t. The feelings tore at my shields. God, I needed… I needed to make sure my friends were safe first. The other people were secondary to that priority.

“Move,” I hissed. “Crawl, don’t attract his attention.”

“R-right…” Rosie said as she moved. She was the one I was most worried about. If the baby didn’t survive, what was the point? Thank God, we didn’t have all that far to go. We’d been sitting in the back row, after all.

It didn’t take long for us to reach the back wall. We’d had to stop several times in our movement so as to not get trampled by scrambling people, but we kept going. Once we reached the wall, I’d turned my attention back to the Reaper. Even through the murk, with the very limited amount of light, the Reaper stood like a looming shadow. He moved purposefully, swinging his sickle and digging into different people, but it seemed like some people were able to get away when chosen. The Reaper would just move onto a closer target, unless they tried for the door. The speed the Reaper had demonstrated proved that people shouldn’t have been able to get away from him, unless…

Oh.

The killer was _playing with us_ , like we were animals that he was hunting for sport. It explained his movements, slow purposeful, keeping the screams going. He wanted the pain, the anguish, the hopelessness and the fear. He wanted us to slowly realize that the longer we were in here with him, the less chance we’d have to survive. The maniac was _playing with us_. I needed to stop this. I had magic, and this was definitely a magical effect. I just… with the number of people in here, I needed to be careful. If one of my spells went wide, I could be looking at a First Law violation. I didn’t want that. No, I really didn’t want that. There was too much death and anguish here already, too much pain. It tore at me.

I reinforced my mental shields.

I turned toward my friends, looking away from the Reaper’s… Looking away from the Reaper for a second. They were safe. My friends were safe, and they were here. But with how the movie slasher was going, I couldn’t be sure they would be for long. I needed to do something.

“Oh God, Oh God, Oh God…” Even in this low light, I could tell Rosie’s face was ashen. Ken had taken to running his hands down his girlfriend’s back to help comfort her.

“Faith… what’s… how is he?” Drea asked from beside me, and I shushed her.

“Quiet…” I hissed. “Stay here, stay down. Don’t do anything to attract his attention, and, please, no heroics.”

“What?” Ken whispered. “What kind of advice is that?”

I looked toward the Reaper again. The darkness of the murk made it difficult to spot him at first, but I could see him dragging someone. God… I needed to do something about this. I couldn’t… There was no way the Reaper was human. So, it would be okay to do something. God, this would be easier if Molly were here… or I could feel her. If I could feel my sister rather than this overwhelming cacophony of terror.

I reinforced my shields again.

“Stay here,” I ordered in a whisper. “Stay safe.”

“W-what are you going to do?” Rosie asked, her whispered voice quavering.

“Something stupid,” I said, and I stood up and walked toward the middle of the room. I needed to deal with this before more people got hurt or worse. Thirty-some odd people in the room… I felt at least three deaths, so far. I didn’t want there to be more… not if I could prevent it. First step was dealing with the lighting situation.

I reached for my pentacle and crucifix, which normally were on the same necklace around my neck. There was just one issue. They weren’t there. Why… where were they? Did I not put them on this morning before going out? Screw it. I’d deal without.

I reinforced my shields again.

It was still difficult to see in the room. Sure, I could easily make out the shape of the Reaper as it took its latest victim, but I could only see the victims decently if they were near the Reaper himself. That couldn’t happen. Without a magical light source to pierce the veil of darkness, I needed to resort to other means, which meant that I had one of a couple options. The first option was easily the worst choice. The Sight. It’d cut through this with ease, allow me to see everything in the room as it truly was, but I was already having trouble keeping my shields up against this tide of fear and death. I didn’t want to think about what I’d see if I used that route. Another option was a perception suite. There should have been enough light that I’d be able to see, at least more than shapes that were visible there. My mind just wasn’t translating it right.

Choice made, I gathered my will.

“ _Mirete_.” I released the energy I’d built up into my eyes and optic nerves, the subtle chilling tingle settling behind them. The spell enhanced all of my perception, not just my vision for a time, but it had one major downside. I couldn’t turn it off manually. I had to wait for it to wear off. I didn’t normally like to use this spell because it made it impossible to _not_ notice things. Normally the mind ignores certain things that it deems unimportant, but this spell effectively turned that instinct off, making _everything_ important. It worked for here though. It helped. While the murk still remained, I could make details out in the darkness

**I could see some of the still-scrambling people, and I could make out the blood and viscera that lined the floor. The Reaper himself remained clear as he bent over to drive his sickle into the spine of a man that he was dragging along. The man’s howl echoed out into the room. People on the floor lay beaten. Sweat mixed with blood dripped down the Pyramidhead cosplayer’s brow.**

A new wave of fear washed over me at the sound of that scream, and anguish from the man’s pain tore at me. I needed to… The man’s whimpers of pain carried hopelessness and agony with the ashy undercurrent of fear.

I reinforced my shields again.

No more. No more people getting hurt. No more people… No… No more deaths. I gathered my will. Harry might have been able to taunt in this situation, but I needed to hit it with a surprise attack. The runes and circles on each of my gloves started glowing green. **The Reaper hadn’t noticed me yet**. Good. I cupped my right hand and spun it around, and I splayed the fingers on my left. I had one shot at this, as the Reaper started looking for a new target.

“ _Sfukaze!_ ” I shouted my spell, thrusting my cupped hand forward. **A torrent of wind poured forth, slamming into the Reaper’s massive form and driving him back. The Reaper slid across the theater floor, buffeted by my wind** as I walked toward him. Good, I was keeping him away from others. I kept my focus on the Reaper, but out of the corner of my eyes, I tried to figure out who I needed to keep him away from. **Some people were caught up in the movements of the wind, even though it remained focused on the Reaper. The handicapped person had bones poking out through his wrapped leg.** “Get out of the way!”

A wave of fear washed over me, and I reinforced my shields. **People scrambled out of our way as I held my wind, and the Reaper continued to be pushed**. **He slid through chairs, back toward the screen where he had appeared, and he continued sliding.**

Until he didn’t.

**The Reaper stomped his feet into the ground and made a sound of rage.** God… What _was_ this thing? How was he the actual Reaper? How was he standing against my wind? **The Reaper pushed against my wind** , and I focused on intensifying it. **The Reaper barely slowed down in his pursuit.**

Oh, Lord…

**The Reaper moved quicker, pushing against my wind, and when he got close, he brought his sickle up.** I knew what he intended. He was going to gut me and leave me, much like the others. No. I wouldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let that happen.

**The first woman lay unmoving, face-down in a pool of blood, most of it her own. A flicker of light gleamed off the maniac’s sickle as it sliced through the air** , but I was ready.

I brought up my left hand and channeled energy through it. “ _Fusegi!_ ” My shield popped up, just in time, an illuminated translucent silver half-dome of energy blocked the sickle attack when it came, **the blade making metallic clangs against my spell**. My shield was nowhere near perfect, not yet, but it was good enough to block the blow here. I sneered at the Reaper, focusing confidence and anger through myself. I needed to keep its attention on me. The longer I did that, the more chance we all had of making it out of this alive. Whatever this was… “Come on, ugly. You’re nothing but a rip-off of Leatherface with a worse backstory.”

Yeah, I could have done better, but when **the Reaper swung its sickle at my shield a second time** , I winced. The shield held, sure, but it rippled. Whatever this thing was… I needed to do something more. Wind didn’t cut it. Maybe pure force would. It certainly seemed to be holding it off.

I reinforced my shields as another wave of fear washed over me. God, it was sickening. I could barely breathe, even with my shields up. My heart pounded, and I needed… I needed….

I reinforced my shields again.

I could use this. Use the feelings I felt as **the Reaper battered down on my shield**. **Sickle blow after sickle blow. A woman tripped over a body on her way to the door.** **He reached over with his free hand, picking up a chair, and slammed against my shield before striking it again with his sickle.** I bottled up the fear, the anger I felt. I wrapped it up in a nice little package, and I channeled it into my will. I lowered my ring and pinky fingers on my right hand, and I brought my index and middle fingers together, splaying out my thumb so that it looked almost like a finger gun. I traced out a circle with my right hand, and I thrust my hand through it, aiming toward the Reaper.

“ _Seiryoki!_ ” I unleashed a burst of force at the Reaper that slammed into him like a ninety mile an hour baseball over an area the size of a basketball. **He flew back five feet, the force taking him off the ground as he did so.**

Nowhere near far enough. **The Reaper landed on his feet and rushed me just as I got my shield back up.** **He slammed more insistently on my shield…** God, I just needed to hold out some more. If I could keep this up just a little longer I’d be fine. **Slamming. Into. My. Shield.** I couldn’t help but wince each time something came up against it. With each blow, it felt like he was digging into me, into my mind. I needed to keep the shield from cracking. I couldn’t… I needed to… I just needed to—

My shields shattered. All of them. Mental and physical.

God… Fear. Anguish. Death. Ash. Decay. Blood. Pain. Death. Pain. Stop it. Stopit. Stop it. No, get away…. Get away. No more. God, no more.

**The Reaper slammed a fist into my stomach, knocking the air from my lungs. I collapsed backward, and I rolled over.**

Get away. Leave. Fear. No. Nononono. Away. I need… Pain. So much. Decay… Death.

**The Reaper grabbed my foot, dragging me toward the center of the room.**

I needed to get away. I needed to stop it… Needed to focus… Focus instead of the tidal wave of terror. Away. Away from the Reaper. Friends.

**I kicked at the Reaper, and I heard more screaming. Some of it was coming from me.**

So much pain. So much anguish. Death. Everyone was dying. Everyone was in pain, or maybe just me. I couldn’t… Molly. I needed Molly, but I couldn’t feel her. Why could I feel everyone but not her? I needed her. Where was my sister? The Reaper was…

**The Reaper slammed the shaft of its sickle into my arm, and it used the blade to drive a slit through my clothing. I didn’t feel the blade pierce skin, just cool metal where I was touched.** **I kicked out at the Reaper. Ken, Rosie and Drea stared. Rosie had started rocking herself in the fetal position.**

Away. Away from the pain. The anguish was everywhere. The fear. The anger. The death. The pain. The decay. It burned. I was so lost. Away. Away from the Reaper.

**I scrambled away** , across the ocean of pain. Needed to protect friends. Protecting everyone. Myself. My family. I couldn’t. I couldn’t. Couldn’t focus. Couldn’t see. Too much fear. Too much terror. It blinded me, blinded everyone.

I whimpered on the ground, overwhelmed by the fear and anguish. God, it was too much. I couldn’t… I couldn’t focus. I needed to protect my friends, and I just was adrift on the sea. Fear and death, ash and decay. The sea rotted and I was stuck within it. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t cast any spells that would help, not like this. Not if I didn’t want to cause more death and destruction. Anything I’d cast like this would hurt too much.

**I felt the murk dissipate, as the Reaper picked me up by my hair, dragging me over in a bow-shape. I saw a man slashed shoulder to waist, stomach and intestines pouring out on the ground.** I could feel every single murderous instinct that came from him. He wasn’t human, but he still felt… He hungered, he tasted, and he was unique in a sea of fear because he felt none. I knew what he’d wanted to do, what I’d let him do just to end this. God, why did the fear hurt so much? The deaths…

**Gunfire rang out, three shots, and then I was flying through the air. I slammed into a row of chairs, and I let out a yelp of pain… that let me focus.** My pain. It was my pain, and I could differentiate it from the others, barely. That split second let me build up a modicum of a shield, purely on my own adrenaline and pain, like someone had thrown me a life preserver. I whipped my head toward the Reaper, and then the doorway. My perception spell stopped, letting me focus specifically on what I needed to see in these shadows.

A brilliant cobalt and silver light illuminated my saviors. Officer Rawlins had his gun drawn, smoke wafting up from the edge of the barrel, barely perceptible if you didn’t know what to look for, and standing behind him was the source of the light. Standing nearby was Harry Dresden, staff in his right hand and brilliant light in the other.

The Reaper turned toward Rawlins, and I could feel the anger rising within the maniac. This was reflected through his actions, the tilt of his head and the tension of his posture showed his fury. He rushed Rawlins, who fired his gun four more times. He swung the sickle down, and the cop caught the force of it on his long flashlight. Sparks flew from the steel case, but the light held. The Reaper twisted the sickle, using the point to cut into Rawlins’s arm. The flashlight fell to the ground as I both felt and heard Rawlins let out his snarl of pain. The Reaper raised his sickle again.

“ _Forzare!_ ” Harry called out, his staff gleaming, and a ripple of kinetic energy slammed into the Reaper. The maniac _flew_ through the aisle, slamming into the projector and shattering it. He kept going, without slowing down. God, how much strength did Harry have? The Reaper continued moving through the air, his flight path taking him through the projection screen he’d appeared in front of, and he hit the wall behind it with a very loud impact. I couldn’t feel the Reaper there anymore. It wasn’t… It wasn’t there anymore.

I leaned over to the side and vomited up half my dinner. God… I could still feel all of them. I just… the fear… Oh God… I just…

I curled into a ball and started sobbing. It was too much. I could feel too much… I felt too much… I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t save anyone… I failed…

What else… what else could go wrong?


	11. Chapter Eleven

Death. Decay. Fear. Ash. Bitter anguish. Frothy desperation. The Reaper was gone, but the sea of tumult remained. I rocked back and forth, my hands on my legs anchoring me in place in the maelstrom. My shields made during the fight were rushed. Small. Crumbling. Not strong enough. Definitely not strong enough. The waves kept crashing. Needed them back. The deaths. Oh, God, the deaths. They _stank_. They reeked. My stomach gurgled. I rocked back and forth more to keep from releasing the remaining contents. So much fear. My fear. Everyone’s fear. With each successive wave, I trembled, even as I rocked. It was leaving, but the damage was done. People wouldn’t be the same. Couldn’t be the same. I _needed to focus_. I needed a life preserver before I drowned.

“Grasshopper.” Harry. Sweet Harry Dresden. When had he knelt down next to me? God, how couldn’t I have noticed him? My Harry. Molly’s Harry. He worried. He worried so much, but he wanted to help. Just like he did when he came in with Rawlins. My former mentor did what I couldn’t. And it only took him a single spell. He blasted the Reaper completely out of the way. So far that the maniac slammed into the wall and disappeared. I turned my head to look at him, noticing his staff held in his gloved left hand, smelling faintly of sulfuric wood smoke. Harry crouched down near me, and I could feel him. Worry. Not fear. Worry. Worry for me. Concern for me. Care for me. Harry Dresden _cared_. He looked over me. My body. My injuries, but he didn’t touch. Not yet. His voice contained barely controlled wrath wrapped in comfort as he said, “Faith, it’s over for now. It’s okay…”

I shook my head, trembling. No. It wasn’t okay. It wouldn’t be okay. Not until I could get ahold of myself. Not until I could keep _myself focused_. He needed to understand. I needed him to understand. It took nearly all of my will to say, “Hurts… I feel… it hurts, Harry…”

Harry placed a hand on my shoulder, only lightly. The worry I felt from him increased as made skin contact. When had my jacket fallen off my shoulder? Harry looked over my body, and I felt some of the worry ebb away from him, replaced by a different type. God, I could feel his care. I could feel his protectiveness. His anger and worry. This wasn’t his fault. He shouldn’t have been blaming himself.

“Easy, Faith. Remember your training,” Harry said, and I felt a light pulse of energy from him. The energy flowed into my shoulder and down toward the small of my back before moving around to my diaphragm. The energy sat there for a second, shaping itself and attuning with my own. It was a raft for me to climb into. A focus for me to use. Back when Molly and I had started showing signs of empathy, Harry had consulted with Bob on how we could control it. Now, Harry had tried to explain the way to have it work, but his explanations had more to do with masonry than anything actually effective, so he introduced us to his Spirit of Intellect trapped in a skull. Bob knew how to phrase it so that we could understand, and the skull knew what we were missing when we built our shields the first time. Harry used the burst of energy to help me focus, and the shape it took was to remind me of what to do.

“Where’s… Molly?” I asked, looking around. My eyes passed over the gravely injured and the dead, which caused new shudders to go through me as I felt their pain and decay. I saw the regular injured, being checked over by EMTs that weren’t loading the gravely injured onto gurneys. I saw police taking statements, friends standing near theirs. Overall there were less people in here than had started, but I couldn’t see my sister anywhere. I could sense her though, thank God. She was a lighthouse shining through the rocky depths of fear, pain and death. I just couldn’t locate her precisely at the moment. However, just the knowledge that I could feel her helped to ease things. If she’d been there during the fight, maybe I’d have been able to win, but I couldn’t blame her for that. Something had been blocking us. The murk. It had to have been the murk.

“She said she had some things to do, and she left me alone to speak with Officer Rawlins.” Harry looked over to Rawlins, and I followed his gaze. The older black officer was talking with my friends, taking their statements. They seemed okay, thankfully. Harry squeezed my shoulder as he looked back to me. Our eyes didn’t quite meet. Neither of us wanted to initiate a soulgaze. “Kid, I need you to focus on getting your shields back up. I know it’s going to be hard, but you should. I’m sure Molly will come soon.”

I nodded, rocking back and forth rhythmically as I went through some of the mental exercises that Harry had trained my sister and I on. It wasn’t easy, but I could do it. Rebuilding my shields would have been easier with my sister present, but I could do it without her. It’s a difficult thing to explain, even to those who can actually do it. Technically, it’s not a magical ability at all. It only requires a force of will rather than any expenditure of energy. It’s different than what I had done in the fight, even if operates on the same principles. What I’d done as a rudimentary stop-gap was simplistic, a stop-gap effort done in the heat of the moment. What I’d planned to do here took more time, and it would be stronger because of it.

In the simplest definition of the term, I meditated. I pictured an empty sand-covered island with myself at the center. Beyond me on all sides was the sea of emotion. Fear, anger, hate, anguish, love, joy, despair, death, and all the emotions lived in that sea. I could identify individual emotions, but they all swirled together. At the edge of the island, between me and the sea, stood a small stone wall with small holes in it. Waves would crash upon the wall, and some would splash overtop, others would trickle through the holes. I looked upon crumbling walls made thin, easy to erode away, and I built upon them. I smoothed out sand and supported it against them, triggering a change into the materials I wanted. Funny thing. I used past life memories to help me create the material. I remembered properties of various materials that would reinforce well, and given that this wall entirely was metaphorical, knowing that the material would hold up to a specific amount of impact energy or tensile stress. Yeah, I knew it was all in my head, but the material helped. This was only the start of my mental shielding, the outer layer, but to completely rebuild everything took time that I didn’t want to spend right now.

I came out of my trance as I felt another sort of energy coming from Harry, this time centered on his forehead. That could only mean one thing, and I didn’t know if I should have been flattered or insulted. Harry caring enough, despite what I’d said to him, to check me over that way, felt nice. I wasn’t really sure that he would do that for me. Of course, maybe I should have been. He was Harry Dresden, after all. I could feel his worry for me, even as I felt him use the Sight. The worry could mean so, so many things, and I didn’t want to think about that when my shields were so freshly rebuilt. So, instead I turned toward Harry slightly, my body still trembling, and I readied myself for the question I needed to ask. I probably looked like a bit of a raccoon with my makeup, but I offered my former mentor a tentative smile and asked, “What do you see?”

Harry seemed to wait for a second, as if he were choosing his words carefully while he looked at me. This surprised me, as Harry usually was less picky about how he spoke. The worry from earlier had returned, and that worried me slightly. Harry held up a hand, and he said, “You’re probably going to be fine…”

“But?” I sensed some more hesitation from Harry, and his Sight remained open as he looked to me.

“But you were the victim of a psychic attack, Faith. It tore through your walls, and it overwhelmed you with what it did. You’d have been far worse off if you didn’t have the walls there to begin with.”

“So when you say I’ll be fine…”

“I mean that—”

“Faith! I’m so glad that you’re okay!” Two pairs of arms wrapped around me and I saw Harry flinch back for a second. I felt him close his Sight off before I looked to my huggers. Drea and Rosie. Ken stood nearby. Rawlins must have finished talking them. I was so glad that they were alright. Despite the death and fear, my friends were alright. Drea had been the one talking. “That was… I don’t know what that was, but you’re okay, and that matters…”

“What she said,” Ken commented from where he stood, and Harry stood up to his full height.

“You three shouldn’t crowd her. She still needs to get looked at by the paramedics. I know she looks fine, but until she’s cleared, treat her gingerly.” Harry crossed his arms.

“Harry, leave them alone,” I said, mercifully keeping the quaver from my voice. I wasn’t about to let the wizard intimidate my friends if I could help it. I lowered my legs so I was sitting flat on the ground, making myself easier to hug. “These are Drea, Rosie, and her boyfriend, Ken. Guys, this is Harry Dresden. He’s looking into the thing that happened to Mr. Pell earlier today.”

Rosie took a hand off of me and waved to Harry. Drea did the same, squeezing me tighter with the arm she left on me. The joy that they felt at me being alright was so warm. I latched onto the supportive feelings to help me bolster my walls some more, using my closeness to my friends to help further. The only thing missing here was Molly, and I could feel her coming from across the hotel. She sent her own feelings of support across the link, but I could tell she’d be a bit longer. She had to have been up in a room or something for some reason. She’d have been here by now otherwise.

“Nice to meet you all,” Harry said, giving only the slightest shake of his head. I could feel Harry’s amusement rising, which probably was a good thing here. I was glad that he’d stopped using his Sight when he did. I really didn’t want to think about how this room would look. God, with all that fear and death, even if much of it was induced… It had to look terrible. There was a reason I hadn’t used my own Sight earlier. “Faith, I’m going to go talk with Rawlins a bit.” I craned my head, and something about my expression must have given something away because he quickly said, “I’ll only be over there. Besides, I think the paramedics want to take a look at you.”

“We’ll keep an eye on her,” Ken said, crouching down next to his girlfriend. Harry took that as his cue to walk off toward where Rawlins stood. Ken watched as Harry went off before turning to me, looking me in the eye for half a second before I shifted my own down. I could feel a shift in the warmth of his feelings, a tinge of worry, a bit of anger, and a good amount of concern were nearly tangible. This echoed out into his voice. “Right, Faith. I’m glad you’re okay, and please don’t take this the wrong way. What the _hell_ did you think you were doing?”

“People were being hurt….” I looked across the room. The EMTs had started taking the visibly worst of the injured off while the police kept the remaining injured as stable as they could. The very few uninjured that weren’t crouching or sitting next to me must have left already. “I couldn’t sit around and do nothing… not when I could help.”

“That was _the Reaper_ ,” Rosie said, releasing from the hug and sitting properly next to me. “It was really him. It was. What could you do against that?”

I shook my head and grimaced at the pain accompanying the movement. I didn’t think I’d hit my head hard enough for anything, but the growing headache I had wasn’t helping. I felt some concern come across the link from Molly, and I sent back a feeling indicating that I needed her, albeit not urgently. “Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. The Reaper’s a character in a movie, Rosie…”

“Movie characters don’t just come off screens,” Drea noted as she copied Rosie, sitting on the opposite side of me. “And wind doesn’t come out of nowhere. Plus, I heard his sickle slamming on something. I _saw_ sparks coming off of that something in front of you.”

“What did you do, Faith?” Ken asked. He scooted so he was in my view, still crouched. “What did you think you could do? You worried all of us.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, bowing my head. I probably could have done more if I hadn’t been so worried about hurting someone by accident. The Reaper had resisted the wind, and it hadn’t gone all that far with pure force. At least not from me. “I didn’t mean to worry you guys. I just knew that if he focused on me, he wouldn’t be focusing on any of you.”

“That didn’t an—”

Ken was cut off as an EMT came over to check all of us. As I’d hoped, none of my friends were injured. In my case, at least nothing was broken, and I had no concussion. The Reaper could have done far more damage to me than it did. I still didn’t know how it managed to cut open my shirt without breaking my skin. That required a disturbing level of precision with that sickle. I’d probably have some bruises from what the Reaper actually did do to me, but apparently, I’d be fine and didn’t actually need a hospital. I might have insisted on that myself. After all, I didn’t want to risk anything in the hospital.

“Make sure you double-check Rosie,” I said to the EMT. “She’s pregnant.”

“I’m fine, Faith.” Rosie squeezed my arm. “He never touched me, not like he did you.”

The EMT nodded and went off to take more people to the hospital. The worst of the injured had been loaded onto stretchers with the first responders. They needed to go to the ER right away, and the second round of EMTs had started to come through. I was certain that the third and fourth rounds would come until everyone was good and ready. Luckily, they knew now that I didn’t need a hospital, thank God.

Ken turned to me, once the EMTs had left. “You never answered the question, Faith.”

“What question?” I asked, wincing as I still felt his worry from earlier. Still, it was colored by the care of friendship, and the concern that came from my other two friends.

“What did you do?” Drea asked. “We know you went off to… distract the Reaper, but there was wind from nowhere, the thing the sickle was sparking off of, and…”

“There was what Mister Dresden did,” Rosie said as Ken wrapped an arm around her. Ken had sat down next to her while the EMT had spoken. “The Reaper flew across the room.”

“What do you think happened?” I asked, not really wanting to come off as crazy to my friends. I had nowhere near the energy to attempt anything major at the moment, especially with my shields in the state they still remained. A burst of warming reassurance came from Molly, along with an image of her passing through cops.

“That’s why we’re asking _you_ ,” Drea said. “I don’t know what happened… You went to face the Reaper and things… and—”

The sudden sound of pounding feet interrupted Drea. I smiled, looking up to see my sister slipping by a patrolman. Rosie scooted out of the way just in time for Molly to fling herself down next to me and wrap her arms around me.

“Fai!” Molly cried out, her face paler than my own must have been. “God, Fai… what…”

I closed my eyes, enjoying my sister’s presence for a second. I used our closeness to add another layer to my shields. I was almost ready. Molly still needed to know what happened, but I didn’t want to say more about it out loud. _We were attacked by something that looked like a movie monster. Something about the way it did its thing blocked you off._

“Molly, she saved us,” Rosie said.

“Got us to the back wall, and then she drew the maniac’s attention herself.” Ken looked at me. “We just wanted an explanation as to the how.”

I groaned, but Molly rubbed my shoulders. _I’ve got this, Fai._

“Not tonight, guys. Lunch tomorrow? We can find a nice private area and do some explanations then, assuming you still want them,” Molly said.

“I can live with that,” Drea said quickly. “I hope they’re interesting.”

“You have no idea,” I said, offering her a tentative smile. I really didn’t like lying to my friends, but I really didn’t want to go into the specifics of magic when I felt almost tapped out. I wasn’t quite exhausted, but I was close which wore on my control. I didn’t want to dip into Molly’s, no matter how much we’d be able to do together. Then there was the issue with the cops and everything…

“We’ll come too,” Rosie said, looking at Ken, who nodded in return. “I’d like to know.”

I nodded and looked around the room again. My friends were willing to give the benefit of the doubt regarding what had just happened. This was one reason they were good friends. I’d already alienated one friend because of the magic before, and I really didn’t want to alienate more. Of course, Becca was a special case.

“Well, let’s get you out of here, Fai,” Molly said, standing up. I felt her concern and her warmth. _Need to get you away from this. You’re all out of whack, sis._

_Shields._ I allowed myself to be helped up by Molly and Drea. Ken helped his girlfriend up, and I smiled at that, taking in their feelings myself. “Yeah… let’s get going.”

Molly and I waved to Harry, who had propped himself up against a wall. He’d clearly finished talking with Rawlins but probably didn’t want to interrupt us. I pointed toward the door, and he nodded. He mouthed that he’d be right behind us, and that was that.

“Come on, you two...” Rosie said.

“Right, right…” I shivered as the actual smell finally hit me. Death and fear did not make for a wonderful combination. We really needed to get out of there before things got worse. Sure, there were only three dead, and God knew how many injured, but I needed to be away from it. My newly rebuilt shields would thank me for that.

The five of us made our way out the door, past some of the uniformed patrolmen, and we were ready to move off elsewhere when we were stopped by a man in a tweed suit. The man was of average height, in his late forties, a bit overweight, balding, and he had deep blue eyes. Not that I looked for long. He held up a hand as we tried to pass by.

“Hold on a second. Did you come from in there?” The man gestured back toward the conference room. As if he couldn’t tell just from looking at us. Despite being right near him, the man was hard to read. His posture wasn’t one of abusive authority, but of someone genuinely concerned. However, what I felt from him had me questioning that. He was concerned, a little suspicious, and he had that subtle feeling that authority had. The man was a cop through and through.

“Don’t want to answer anything today…” I murmured.

“It’ll only take a minute. I just need to get your names,” said the man, before he pulled out his badge and showed it. Knew it. The man had to be CPD. Who else would wear tweed in the summer? “Detective Sergeant Greene. I’m with homicide.”

“Faith Carpenter,” I said, and everyone else gave their names. I didn’t want to sit there and talk though. Just needed to get away, get further away.

“Okay, what happened in there?” Greene asked.

“People died,” Ken said. “Can we go? The girls need some rest.”

“I’ll need to get a statement later,” Greene said.

“We’ve already given one to Rawlins. Who’s still in there. Ask him for it.” Ken said, looking to us.

“Please, Detective,” I said, this time letting the quaver enter my voice. “I just want to be clean of it.”

“Fine,” Greene said, and we started moving again. Still, as we passed him by, I could feel his eyes on me, just as I was certain that others probably felt my eyes on them during the fight. I didn’t know what Greene thought had happened, but I knew that something about him just rubbed me the wrong way. It must have been the tweed. The man wasn’t even British.

Plus, I really hadn’t wanted to remember anything about the attack and subsequent fight. I didn’t want to remember how I’d failed to do anything substantial. I didn’t want to remember seeing all those people hurt… seeing those people die. Feeling those people die. Nor did I really want to remember that… huh. I hadn’t thought much of it in the room after the fact, but now that I thought about it, something was odd. See, one side-effect of my perception spell is that I can remember what I saw while using it pretty clearly. It wasn’t nearly the forced remembrance of the Sight, but it was close. I could recall every person I saw that was dealing with the Reaper while I was under it. I also could recall whom I did not see while using it. Someone had made it out, despite the Reaper. It had been the guy in the Krueger-inspired turtleneck. I knew he’d been there before the lights went out, but he was gone when I activated my perception spell. Where had he gone?

How did that song go again? _One… two… Freddy’s coming for you…_


	12. Chapter Twelve

The idea of being clean is what had Molly and I showering in Rosie’s hotel room not ten minutes later. I just stood under the shower head, letting the water beat down my back as Molly helped clean me off. Even with my shields up, even away from the room, I kept flashing back to it, to what I could have done differently, to whatever the Reaper must have been. God, I should have been able to do better there. I mean, I’m not really a powerhouse the way Harry is, but if I’d used my lightning, I might have been able to take the Reaper down.

Of course, there’d been the chance I’d miss and hit someone that I didn’t want to hit. Lightning and fire were both bad ideas in that situation, and I wasn’t really all that confident about my application of ice. It was lucky that there were only three dead, and I was lucky that I wasn’t physically harmed. It had ample opportunity to do so. Why hadn’t it?

_Still focused on the Reaper?_ Molly wrapped her arms around my waist. Her warmth, along with that of the shower calmed me. _You did what you could. You know that._

_I should have done more_. I leaned against my sister, enjoying the hot water some more. This life or the last, I still loved a hot shower. It always comforted me.

_And risk becoming a warlock? I saw how many people were in there,_ Molly sent, a tinge of worry coloring her thoughts. _You did the right thing, Fai. I just wish that I’d been there._

“What were you doing, anyway?” I asked aloud as I turned off the shower and stepped out, grabbing a towel. I passed one to Molly as she followed me. “I mean, Harry said that you left him to talk with Officer Rawlins alone.”

“He asked for that, actually,” Molly said. “Rawlins didn’t want to let Harry go into the bathroom. Something about it being an active crime scene. At that point, Harry basically said that he wanted to speak with Rawlins alone.”

“And of course, given it’s _Harry_ , you obeyed without question,” I teased, continuing to dry myself. Of course, Molly would normally do nothing of the sort. Well, she’d leave him alone for all of two minutes before following him in.

“Like you wouldn’t.” Molly flicked water off her hair at me. “Harry knows what he’s doing with the investigation stuff.”

_So how long before you veiled and came back?_ I smirked at my sister as I dried myself off.

_I didn’t._ Molly’d probably have squeaked if that had been aloud. _Well, not this time_.

“Mm. So, what _were_ you doing?” I asked, wrapping a bathrobe around myself.

“I went to take a look at the registered guest list. See if anyone stood out.”

“Did anyone?” I asked, tossing Molly her own bathrobe.

“Not particularly.” Molly put on the bathrobe and grabbed a brush. She brushed out her cotton candy hair, keeping it parted.

“Mmm… Three thousand people,” I said, taking the brush from my sister so I could do my own hair. “Unless there was a name you recognized, I doubted anyone would stand out without some sort of help.”

Molly nodded, and the two of us left the bathroom at that point. Rosie and Drea had brought a change of clothing for me, laying it in the bed. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a pair of sweatpants and a SplatterCon!!! T-shirt. Molly had been brought the same. The two of us put our stockings back on anyway because we didn’t exactly have any socks with us for our boots. We had to put on the same underwear and bras because neither Rosie nor Drea were our sizes.

A knock came at the hotel room door, and then it opened slightly, revealing Rosie’s head. “You two decent in there?”

“Well, we’re dressed, anyway,” I answered, nudging my sister slightly.

“Not entirely certain on the decent.” Molly nudged me back, smiling.

“Close enough,” Rosie said and opened the door all the way, revealing herself and Drea. Ken must have gone back to his room already at that point. Our two friends came inside. “So, it looks like you two might have to use the back exit with Drew if you want to avoid the media on this.”

“Of course, I’m sure he’ll like that,” Drea said with a smirk. “Your back exits are nice enough.”

I tossed my towel at her, and she caught it, sticking out her tongue.

“Well, we were planning on staying a little longer anyway.” While I didn’t interrupt my sister, I shot her a look. I really wanted to get home and into our lab, but apparently, Molly had other ideas. Still, sometimes her ideas were good enough. “Sandy probably needs some help with the prep for tomorrow, and I think that’ll probably be good for Fai if we take a short walk through the other rooms.”

I shrugged. My sister might have been right. I wasn’t fully sure, but we did still need to investigate to see if we could find what Lara wanted us to. “Maybe. I’m a little tired, though.”

“I’d offer to let you stay in here,” Rosie said, gesturing at her bed. “But I need a bit of sleep, myself.”

“Wouldn’t mind sharing with you,” Drea said, a grin on her face. “And you guys could tell us what happened in there.”

“We promised we would tomorrow,” Molly and I said in unison. We decided to go all the way, once we started, and we offered smiles to our friends. It kept us a little balanced. “At lunch, we’ll show you. You just need to keep an open mind.”

“I can,” Drea said, looking over us and suppressing a shudder. The feelings we felt from her… It was like she was simultaneously creeped out and... right. Okay then. We turned to Rosie.

“Yeah, I can too.” Rosie nodded. We could tell that she was a little freaked out still, and who could blame her? It wasn’t often that movie monsters came off the screen to kill people. _We_ were still freaked out ourselves. Still. We needed to reassure her a little.

“Good. We’ll bring some of the tea with us then. We’ll cover the cost for it this time.” We smiled at our friends. Honestly, charging our pregnant friend for what the medicinal tea was seemed wrong anyway. It really only took about an hour to make, and the ingredients weren’t all that expensive, save for one. We still had a few pearls left, anyway.

“Thank you, both of you,” Rosie said. “It really does help.”

“Rosie,” we said, quietly. “You aren’t…”

“No!” Rosie exclaimed suddenly, grabbing at her arm and rubbing up and down. “I wouldn’t. Not with the baby. It’s just… the tea helps. It helps with the cravings. I don’t even feel them anymore, but the tea helps. One dose a day, and I don’t feel any of them…”

We nodded. Good. She hadn’t started back up with the heroin. We didn’t want to think about what might happen if she’d taken the tea with the drugs that she’d done. Ken and the idea of protecting the baby had to be a major help with that. Sure, a few weeks ago Sandy had suggested that fear might be a better motivator to help with getting someone to stop drugs, but we knew better. Forcing fear upon Rosie, even in a benign fashion, would hurt her. At least with this “tea,” she knew what she was getting into, and she knew how it was helping her.

“Good night, you two,” we said as we stepped out into the hotel’s hallway, and we heard their echoing farewells. The door shut behind us and we made our way down the hall toward the central staircase. We could have used the elevator, but we didn’t really want to risk it the way we did on the way up. See, with the way magic was, there were even odds that the elevator would fail the moment we stepped in or it would work completely fine.

It didn’t take us long to make it down to the central area. The door to the staircase happened to be right next to the elevator, and just as we entered the room, we could hear talking from the elevator as its doors began to open.

“—just need to make sure that there are three mints, not four or two. The last hotel had two, and that was just unacceptable.”

The elevator doors opened fully, revealing two men. The one speaking was of a medium height, dressed in dark slacks and a grey polo shirt. Over one of his arms he had a navy-blue blazer. He was a painfully attractive man, slender with stark cheekbones, and his dark hair was cropped neatly and cut short. His eyes were dark pools that seemed like they’d be easy to get lost in, and he currently was complaining to his companion.

Said companion was a shorter man in an expensive grey suit. The man could only be described as frog-faced, really. His mouth was too large for his face, and his eyes bulged practically out of his head from beneath the wide-rimmed glasses that encircled them. Contrary to his companion, the shorter man had fine-stranded black hair, limp and stringy, cut in such a way that we wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d literally placed a bowl over the man’s head and snipped.

When we saw the pair of men, Molly and I chose to separate ourselves partially. While we’d prefer to act in our natural manner, the fact of the matter was that it sometimes was seen as disturbing. Sometimes being disturbing could be a tool, but it didn’t seem necessary at the moment. Besides, our separated views could help when we were examining the men, who seemed somewhat off to begin with. Their emotions just didn’t feel all that quite right for normal humans. The shorter man felt something akin to annoyance mixed with a servile feeling toward the more attractive one. The taller, more attractive man felt something familiar to Molly and I, something hidden behind the mundane annoyance at the number of mints a hotel deigns to leave on a room’s pillow.

I recognized him, then. I’d seen his picture online back when I could still use a computer without blowing it up, and the only thing that had changed about him was his haircut. This was Darby Crane, the famed horror director. I assumed that the frog-faced man standing next to him was his assistant or something similar, but that didn’t matter much. Molly and I still needed to make it downstairs so we could do our investigating, and just because Darby Crane was clearly some sort of spooky thing, that didn’t make him a definite suspect.

“Excuse us,” Molly and I said in unison, and we attempted to move past the pair on our way to the stairs. While we _were_ acting separately, there was something to be said in using our twinness to our advantage. Of course, this had the attractive director look up and offer us a winning smile.

“No, no, ladies. Pardon _me_.” Darby Crane’s smile practically sparkled at us. Yeah. There was no way this guy was human. Nobody human had a smile that white. “What are two visions of loveliness such as yourselves doing out and about at this time of night?”

If not for the fact that the _Reaper_ leapt off the screen to attack earlier this evening, it would have been unnerving how quickly the man could go from complaining about something as normal as mints to the semi-flirtatious tone he took when talking to us. Honestly, when we looked at him closer, it became clearer that more than just the emotion was off with him. His entire demeanor was a lie, a role crafted specifically to hide something underneath, a cruelty that lurked just under his skin. I won’t lie and say I didn’t like the way he was looking at us, but I recognized something within the look, a silver-sheened hunger that predators get when looking at prey. That feeling. The hunger beneath his feelings, rising when he looked at my sister and I… well, it made some sense. Maybe Darby Crane wasn’t really a Darby, after all. His companion definitely wasn’t fully human either.

“Getting into trouble,” Molly said with a giggle, nudging me slightly. I knew what my sister wanted to do. “Well… we’re actually—”

“—con staff. We need to make sure that downstairs is—” I picked up where Molly left off, then let her finish for me.

“—ready for tomorrow.” Molly smiled at the man, and my own joined hers. Probably was best to let him think that we were just normal people. It meant that he was unlikely to look too deeply at us or associate us with anything but being staff. Something about him, though… I wasn’t sure I wanted to go downstairs without seeing if we could get his take on what happened earlier. While I was pretty sure he wasn’t responsible for what was going on with the Reaper, he definitely was up to _something_ I just wasn’t entirely sure what it was yet. Molly picked up on my feeling, and sent me an assurance that she’d back me up.

“You’re Darby Crane, aren’t you?” I asked, letting my voice get into the bubbly range. In this outfit, I more resembled a college co-ed than the Gothic chick I’d been earlier in the day. “I’m a big fan. I mean, _Harvest_ was just… amazing.”

“Why yes, I am. And who are you two lovely ladies?” Somehow Crane’s smile grew wider and more gorgeous. It really shouldn’t have been possible, but given what he probably was, it made too much sense. Why was it that most of the non-ghoul spooky things we ran into had such a large amount of sex appeal? I glanced to the man’s companion. Yeah, most was accurate.

“Molly and Faith,” we answered, and then I continued. “I don’t suppose you sign autographs, do you?”

The man’s companion cleared his throat in what sounded disturbingly like a croak. I didn’t think that he was a literal frog-man, but there was definitely something amphibious in his ancestry. Amphibious and ugly.

“I will at my panel tomorrow,” Crane answered. “But if you’re looking for some tonight, I could always make some time for you in my room…”

“I don’t know…” I trailed off. I think if Molly and I hadn’t reinforced our shields, we definitely would have wanted to go into that room. Doubly so as his eyes took on a slightly silver sheen. Yeah. No. Bad vampire. “We’re really supposed to get down and help out. With what happened and all… I’m not sure it would be a good idea.”

I felt something tickling at the edge of my senses, a familiar emotional signature, but the presence of the pair in front of me took most of my attention with my shields up. I needed to focus on dealing with Crane. I glanced to my sister. _We_ needed to focus on him.

Crane’s eyes took on an even further silver sheen, as his hunger rose. I could feel it now, even through my shields. He was trying to push something on us, but we stood resolute. “Come on. I’m always happy to treat a couple of fans to the night of their lives. I can show you how we get those screams for the movie. I can make sure you scream for me. Scream all night l—”

A loud thumping sound, like something banging into the wall, interrupted Crane’s proposition. If I hadn’t been certain before, I was certain now. We were dealing with a vampire of the White Court that liked to make horror. Lovely. It was maddening that I hadn’t realized it before, but something about him had raised my hackles, even before the hunger came forth.

Crane’s companion cleared his throat. “Sir, given the events going on downstairs, it’s probably best that you go to your room alone, for now.”

“Glau,” Crane bit out. Ah, that was the toady’s name. “I wish to retire with these young women.”

“Emphasis on the young,” Molly said, and a shiver ran through the both of us. “We’re not eighteen yet, Mister Crane. Our mentor might have an issue with that.”

“Oh, and who’s that mentor?” Crane asked, his smile making me weak at my knees, even knowing what he was and what he was doing.

“H—”

“Hardly worth your time,” I said, cutting my sister off. Something told me that mentioning Harry’s name here wouldn’t be good. Not every White Court vampire had Harry’s best interests at heart. “We shouldn’t take any more of yours. We’ll get that autograph tomorrow.”

“Mister Crane, I insist.” Glau looked at the director. I could taste something akin to worry from him. “You should go to your room alone. Minors are not worth it. I’ll make sure to find you something more appropriate.”

“No, it’s alright, Glau,” Crane said, shuddering as his eyes took on a more normal color. Oh, good, he could rein it in. “You’re right. Ladies, my apologies. I should be getting to sleep, anyway. Big day tomorrow, lots of adoring fans.”

“It was nice meeting you,” we said in unison, and as Crane walked away, we couldn’t help but feel a little bit disappointed. While we knew now that he definitely was a vampire, we still didn’t know if he was involved in what had happened earlier. Given that he’d arrived after whatever had attacked Pell did so, it was unlikely, but something still seemed off about his presence here. Then there was Glau’s… offer. Someone was getting fed on at this convention, but we didn’t know who. Judging from the method of the hunger, we were pretty sure Darby Crane’s real last name began with an R. We continued pondering that, even as the familiar presence came around the corner. Now that Crane wasn’t standing right in front of us to muddle it, we could easily tell who it was.

Drew stepped around the corner, a smile on his face, but we could tell that he wasn’t exactly happy. Our eyes flicked to his left hand, which had twitching fingers, and then we looked at his prosthetic right. It had been curled into the approximation of a fist, and we could see some small chips that looked like paint flaking off it. Huh.

“I’d been looking for you two,” Drew said as he approached. Some of the agitation within him faded somewhat as he got closer, but then he looked at us. A flash of recognition passed through him, and he let out a sigh. “Faith, Molly… you mind?” He mimed a pair of scissors.

Honestly, we hadn’t even noticed that we’d done it, but Molly and I acquiesced to Drew’s request. Once we did that, Drew wrapped his good arm around me, and I smiled. Molly looked at the two of us and pouted for a second before nestling herself on the other side of me.

“Drew, how long were you standing there?” Molly asked.

“Long enough,” he growled. “ _That’s_ the director of your favorite horror movie, Fai?”

I shrugged as best I could with two arms wrapped around me. “Don’t have to be a good person, or even human to make a good movie, I guess.”

The three of us made our way toward the stairs. There was no way we were doing the elevator.

“So, I saw a bunch of cops. They aren’t here because of Nelson. What happened?” Drew asked, and I winced. Both arms around me gave me a supportive squeeze, and as we made our way down the staircase, I explained to Drew what had happened as best I could. I mentioned that I didn’t exactly think that it had anything to do with what Lara had us looking into. Molly agreed with me, and she added her points where necessary.

“So, movie monsters, vampires, and God knows what else?” Drew asked rhetorically as he opened the ground floor door with his prosthetic. “And three bodies drawing cops in. This is going to be even more of a pain to look into with that.”

“At least it isn’t zombies, Mister Warren,” a female voice said from the other side of the opened door. It shut to reveal a familiar short blonde woman. Karrin Murphy smiled at us. “Faith, Molly. Good to see you. I think we should have a word.”


	13. Chapter the Thirteenth

Detective Lieutenant Karrin Murphy crossed her arms once the door to the staircase fully shut behind the three of us. This was the head of the Chicago PD’s Special Investigations department, a unit that typically was called in to deal with _those_ crimes, the ones that were typically unpalatable to the rest of the force due to the weirdness surrounding them. Of course, from looking at her, you’d never be able to tell. Murphy normally looks like she could be someone’s kid sister. She’s a shade over five feet tall, has shoulder-length blonde hair, striking blue eyes, a pug nose and nearly invisible freckles. Of course, right then, she had the faintest of rings under her eyes, and her hair was messier than she’d normally had it. She’d obviously come straight out of bed. Murphy was made almost entirely of springy muscle; she had a gymnast’s build, but it didn’t detract from her curves. She wore a pair of blue jeans, a dark T-shirt, and a very light cotton blazer.

I met her eyes, and I could zero in on her emotions, feeling the exhaustion she had mixed with both annoyance and concern. The annoyance probably came from having to be called in out of bed, and it really didn’t take a genius to guess why she’d be concerned. Three people dead, several more hospitalized.

“Lieutenant,” Drew said. “It’s good to see you.”

“You as well, Mister Warren,” Murphy said, her eyes never leaving my own. “You’re looking better than the last time I saw you. All of you are. Well, mostly…”

“You said you wanted to talk?” I asked, leading her toward the original topic.

“I said I wanted a word, Faith. But not here. It’s still too public.” Murphy didn’t quite smile, but I felt a flash of amusement run through the detective. She gestured for us to follow her, and we did. Given the time, there were significantly less people around that were here for the convention, but given the crime, there were security and emergency personnel walking around.

Murphy directed us into a small room nearby, where the four of us took a seat. The room had been converted into a makeup room, where the special guests would be able to have their work done, but that didn’t matter for this discussion. The detective turned her chair around to face us. “Now that we’re here, we can talk. I needed to speak with the three of you. Specifically, I wanted to tell you how you should conduct yourself here. Special Investigations wasn’t called in for this case, despite the obvious reasons it should have been. As such, I’m not the lead detective on it. This means that I won’t be able to allow you three the leeway that you might need to act in your full capacity. None of you are licensed investigators, even if you help Dresden sometimes.”

“Right,” Molly said. “But what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?”

I just barely resisted the urge to slap my sister in the back of the head. Barely. Luckily, Murphy didn’t seem to take too much offense to that as she simply pursed her lips.

“What I mean is this. Dresden’s investigating. Let him investigate. As a licensed private investigator, he has legitimate reasons to be allowed to help out, even if he isn’t officially pulled into the case as a consultant. You three, on the other hand, have no legitimacy of your own. Now, I won’t stop you from doing what you feel you must, but I will suggest that you keep your head down. Don’t do anything that would attract the attention of the lead detective.”

“He really didn’t look like much,” Molly said, but I raised my hand to prevent her from saying more.

“You don’t get to that position without something. He’s definitely more than he seemed.” I looked at Murphy again. “Thank you, Lieutenant Murphy, for the advice.”

“You’re welcome. Now, where _is_ Dresden? He went through all the trouble to get me contacted. Why didn’t he meet me out here?” Murphy asked. It was a good question, really. The last place I remembered seeing Harry was the conference hall that had been attacked. I supposed it was possible that he was still in there, especially if one of the police had started interviewing him. Standard interview tactics could theoretically keep someone occupied for hours.

“It’s possible that he’s still in the room the attack happened in,” I said. “Assuming that he might be being considered as a suspect, just like her boyfriend might be.” I lightly nudged my sister to emphasize whose boyfriend I was talking about. I knew Nelson was innocent, but the fact that he had a record of some sort meant that if he didn’t get cleared, he could go to jail for a long time. Neither of us wanted that to happen so it was prudent to get Murphy with Harry. They knew the best ways to help out in that direction.

“Which room is that?” Murphy seemed to ignore the boyfriend comment. Probably for the best. She probably would have been able to find it on her own, but it didn’t hurt for us to direct her toward it.

“It’s the first hall on the left in the west wing.” Molly pointed. “There should be some cops over there.”

“Right,” Murphy said, and then she shook her head as a wave of tiredness pushed through her. “I’m going to need to grab some coffee first, and I’m betting Dresden needs it. Think about what I said, and if there’s anything you think of that can help, tell Harry.”

“Not you?” Molly and I asked in unison.

“He’ll tell me anyway, but he should know first.” Murphy waved. “Stay safe.”

The three of us watched Murphy walk off, stepping out of the room. She probably would be getting her coffee first before getting Harry, but either way, she wasn’t near us. Investigating what we intended on looking into wasn’t exactly going to be easy, not with the cops here. I didn’t even really know where to start. Molly had looked through the registrations, but without anything to go on, we didn’t know. _Ki… ki... ki…_

Drew cleared his throat. “Right. So, I think this is as good a time as any to discuss what we’ve actually found so far. Lara probably wouldn’t have sent us in here on information that she knew was bad.”

“Eh…” I rocked my hand from side to side. “If it suited her, sure she would. She’s not doing this herself, and given what Crane is…”

“Mm… I’m not so sure,” Molly said. “She might have known about the director, true, but that doesn’t mean she sent us here because of him.”

“Okay, then what about what you saw, Fai?” Drew turned to me. “Both times. The bathroom and the… Well, whatever happened in there.”

“I didn’t see anything with the bathroom,” I said quickly. “Just felt it. Fear. Something was radiating it, forcing it out, but it wasn’t mine. It probably was Pell’s, or Nelson’s. Whatever it was, the fear was incited by the thing in the bathroom, but the Reaper was worse. Much worse.”

Molly moved closer to me and wrapped an arm around my back. “He can’t hurt you here, Fai.”

“It’s funny, because I really never found him all that scary on the screen. I mean, he was a rip-off of a classic slasher, with only his weapon and environment to differentiate him.” I shook my head, shivering. I wasn’t scared of him. I _wasn’t_. It wasn’t my fear that I felt. It couldn’t have been. “But seeing him actually there… seeing him kill those people. Feeling those hands… feeling everything he did…”

“It wasn’t right,” Molly said, rubbing my arm. “We’re fine here though. You’re not alone.”

Drew nodded, agreeing with my sister as I leaned into her. I wasn’t scared.

“So, do you think the Reaper’s our thing?” Drew asked. “A result of whatever she sent us here for?”

Molly and I shook our heads. Neither one of us thought the Reaper stood a chance of being related to the Old One action, but I thought… some inkling of memory had me thinking on what it could be.

“It doesn’t make sense to be that,” I said. “Whatever the Reaper was, it wasn’t announcing itself. It was just using its visible presence and the identity of the movie monster. The thing from three years ago… It wanted to be known as what it was.”

“True enough,” Molly said. “And if it was that sort of thing… We’d probably have a lot more issues.”

“Sacrifice is a thing though,” Drew noted. _Ma…ma…ma… ma…_

“Maybe,” I acknowledged, but then I breathed out a sigh. “I suppose the best bet would be to take another look around, now that more people are gone.”

“Yeah. Split up?” Drew asked.

“Fuck. No,” I said, and Molly slugged me lightly in the arm. I gave her a short look before turning back to my… to Drew. “We need to stick together. If something, God forbid, shows up, I don’t want any of us to face it alone.”

“We won’t,” Molly said, squeezing my shoulder, and then she helped me up off the chair.

“Where should we check first?” Drew asked. “I mean, obviously we can’t go to the west wing, given the cops.”

I started to shrug, but then I stopped, pursing my lips. “The statue.”

“The one you built?” Molly asked. “Why there?”

“A hunch. There was something strange in that room earlier, and the bathroom that Pell got attacked in is nearby.” Honestly, I wasn’t entirely certain what it was, but something about the room and my own statue had twigged me. The damage done had been… off, for lack of a better term. It had been focused specifically on the real-world segment, leaving the movie monsters unharmed. I hadn’t tested the shadows after my repair, but I’d assumed that it would have been fine. Something seemed wrong with that assessment now. Still, I wouldn’t know until we managed to look at it. _Ki…ki…ki…ki… ma…ma…ma…ma…_

“Right,” Drew said. “Let’s go then. As good a point as any. The rest of the rooms don’t really have much that we haven’t seen. I mean, the projection rooms and the panel rooms are all set up more or less the same. The statue room’s the only one that’s a little different.”

I nodded and we headed toward the room. I could see the bathroom at the end of the hallway still had the police tape blocking it off, but there wasn’t anyone guarding it at the moment. I suspected that had more to do with what had happened with the Reaper than it being given up on, but there was no real way to know. Either way, the room we wanted to head into wasn’t that far. The three of us stepped into room C. _Ki_ … _ki…ki…ki…_

Much like earlier, the room had my six-foot sculpture set in the middle, and the metal ring around my sculpture marked the optimum viewing point, with varied screens behind the ring for the shadows to be projected onto. The lights in the room had been dimmed, and the projector set up toward the end of the room likely hadn’t even been turned on tonight. The chairs in the room were set up around some small tables. I guessed that this room had been used for some sort of roleplaying campaign rather than movie showing. Honestly, the statue probably added to the ambiance.

“So, what do you think?” Molly asked. “I mean, other than your statue turning out awesome, sis, but you knew that already. It’s nice and creepy.”

“Yeah, you did a good job, Fai.” Drew clasped me on the shoulder with his left hand, and I smiled. “Still, I’m not sure what this has to do with our investigation.”

I nodded. “It’ll probably be best if I show you.” I moved around to where I’d found the damage earlier in the day. “See, I had to do a bit of repair here, but I was distracted before I got the chance to test it. I’d dismissed it earlier, but thinking on it, something wasn’t quite right.”

“What are we looking at?” Drew asked as he bent over next to me as I reached into the statue, feeling out the portion of the repair. _Ma…ma…ma…ma..._

“Not much, yet,” Molly said, as she pulled off her crucifix and pentacle. How come she managed to remember that today and I didn’t? “Want me to hold the light?”

“I’d like to, actually.” I held out my hand, and Molly passed them to me.

“Where’s yours?”

“Probably on the vanity at home,” I said as I focused some of my remaining energy into both Molly’s pentacle and her crucifix. They both began to emit a soft blue glow that brightened as I focused more upon it. I held up the lights, letting them shine upon my statue, letting the shadows extend beyond it. I pursed my lips as I examined what should have been projected from here. The representations of true vampires and the worse creatures out there projected long shadows, consuming and shifting. The Faerie representation showed the darkest parts of Winter and the heat-death of Summer, represented by some simple symbolism in a snowflake and a butterfly. The repair had eaten into the snowflake, marring one of the spokes with something, but it wasn’t something that…

“Well, that’s neat. It’s supposed to do that?” Drew asked.

“Project the shadow based upon where the light is, yeah,” I said. “It was a bitch and a half to get right.”

“She spent the first two weeks of the sculpting just planning and fretting over it,” Molly said, even as I started to move around, keeping my eye on the shadows. My sister kept talking with Drew as I did so, explaining the origins of the statue. I needed to focus. There was something bugging me about the real-world shadowbox, something more than the snowflake.

The ghoul claws seemed to reach toward me as I moved around the light, their shadows extending beyond but stopping before they reached the edge of the wall. The shadows bent, weaving in on themselves as the next set of shadows formed, and I caught a glimpse of… I don’t know. It wasn’t fully there. I looked up in the room. It seemed that my statue wasn’t really the only decoration in here. Like the projection rooms and the panel rooms, this room had a drawing in it. It sat on the wall, just outside the metal circle surrounding my statue. It really wasn’t all that far, but something about it… The drawing was a portrait of a slasher victim, dressed up for the part, including the wound given to her by the slasher. On either side of the victim’s head were dark spots. It was as if the killer stared out from behind the victim at my statue, following his victim’s gaze. I wasn’t sure, but... something about it… _Ki...ki…ki…ki…_

Never mind. It was just a drawing. I needed to pay attention to the shadows. I continued clockwise around the statue, watching the shadows. I made it through the classic monster era, and it looked fine. The moon representing the Wolfman and the fangs representing either Dracula or the Nosferatu displayed perfectly, and there was an illusion of movement as the light passed from one side to the next.

“Fai…” Drew said, his voice level, despite him feeling something off as I continued onward. I heard my name, but I was focused. As I slipped between the display with the light, I could see what bugged me. There shouldn’t have been anything displaying between the sets of shadows other than the edges of what was already there, but it was like there was something else. I just couldn’t quite get it to display right. I needed to move further. _Ma…ma…ma…ma…_

“Fai…” Molly said, and I felt her move closer to me, even as I continued around. I made it to the Eighties Slasher section. Krueger’s claws were the first to appear, their shadows reaching far beyond what should have been, but that came entirely from the angle. As I continued around, Molly placed a hand on my shoulder, not letting me advance further. I could feel the tension in her grip “Fai. Stop. Now. Back away, slowly.”

“Why, what…?” I trailed off as I looked further at the shadows here. Yes, there was Jason’s machete, but I was also pretty confident that I hadn’t made anything more than the machete. I hadn’t made something that would display a full eight-foot tall linebacker’s shadow. I hadn’t made anything that would cause the light to be glinting off of a… hockey… mask…

“Ki…ki…ki…ki… ma…ma…ma…ma…” A harsh whisper came through the room, echoing out the first syllables of a mother’s delusional words. She spoke to herself, as if she were her own son. _Kill her, Mommy. Kill her._

Great. What had I done to deserve two hockey-masked psychopaths in one night?


	14. Chapter Fourteen

When Molly and I were younger, we used to sneak down into the living room after midnight to watch the movies our parents wouldn’t let us watch for whatever reason. It hadn’t been hard to bypass the protections they’d used, and we’d been able to watch whatever we wanted. That was how we discovered our mutual love of horror. During those times, we’d watch movies ranging from _The Texas Chainsaw Massacre_ to _Suburban Slasher_ to _Scream_ , and, of course, to _Friday the 13th_. I have many fond memories of hiding under a blanket and peering out at the screen, rooting for the victims to survive while knowing in my heart of hearts that they probably wouldn’t. The monsters on the screen scared me so much when I was little, but after what happened when I was eight, they just couldn’t hold up to reality. After that point, they became more a comfort, showing that as messed up as the world was, it wasn’t this ridiculous.

Seeing Jason Voorhees standing there before us, I was starting to feel a lot more childlike, and he was anything but comforting.

The iconic killer towered over us, bearing down upon us with his sheer presence at what had to be over seven feet tall with the broad shoulders that came from many years of living alone in a forest and surviving on his own. He hid his scarred face behind the white plastic of a hockey goalie’s mask that was chipped and dented around the red markings on the cheek areas and forehead, and his neck-length dark stringy hair came out the back, matted down by the mask’s straps. He wore dark clothes: a pair of workman’s trousers, a dark blue shirt that I couldn’t see the style of, and a black leather jacket. The light emitting from the borrowed pentacle and crucifix I held in my right hand gleamed off the steel of the machete Jason held in his gloved right. His left hand similarly was covered, but it was clenched into a fist. Overall, Jason Voorhees cut an imposing figure in the room, his very presence oppressive.

Still, it was strange. While there was no doubt in my mind that the being in front of us was Jason Voorhees, not a person in costume but the killer himself, his emotional aura seemed off, stunted. It was as if he were hollow for a few seconds, malformed. What could cause something like that? Even the Reaper had shown emotion: a hunger for something, an aspect of the fear he created in others, and even the malevolence. Jason lacked all of those, his aura standing as an empty vessel, devoid of feeling. Then, almost as if some unseen hand poured from a pitcher, the aura began to fill. Emotion bloomed to life, rising from some unseen seeds that flowered into anger, hatred and murderous desire. Someone tilled the garden of Jason Voorhees, and now it was ready for harvest.

The shift from nothing to full happened in a matter of seconds, and as it happened, I looked around the room. Other than the three of us and Jason, nobody else was inside. There were no other potential targets for a killer that liked to murder young co-eds, and hell, the only saving grace we had was that Molly and I were in sweats and a T-shirt rather than the date clothes we had on earlier. That said, between the three of us, we resembled the most common targets of a movie slasher.

Briefly, I considered fighting Jason, but between the ad-hoc enchantment I did earlier, the flash-welding of my statue, and the rebuilding of my mental shields after the Reaper fight, I didn’t have a whole lot left in me. Sure, if Molly and I worked together, we’d be able to do quite a bit, but we wouldn’t have the normal staying power that we could have. Neither of us was Harry Dresden, and while we certainly had gotten stronger since our last major fight, I wasn’t so sure it’d be enough. If we’d both been at full, or close to it? Sure. Absolutely. But we weren’t. As such, there was only one thing to do.

“Nope.” I shook my head, backing away from Jason and tugging Drew’s shirt to pull him back as well. “Wrong room. We’re definitely in the wrong room. Nothing more to be found here.”

Molly nodded as she too, backed up. Jason’s right arm twitched as he turned his head to watch the three of us. “Yeah. You’re right. Let’s just le—”

“Back and spread out!” Drew called out, shifting his body so he stood between Jason and the two of us as the killer brought up his machete and swung it down. Drew slapped at the blade’s edge with the palm of his prosthetic left arm, and the blade slid down the prosthetic, causing sparks to flare up as it went over every contour. A hissing sound, not unlike something boiling, permeated the room. The machete split open Drew’s sleeve up to his elbow, revealing his metal appendage for all to see. Drew’s arm had the silvery sheen of polished steel. It was well-articulated, and the way it was set up resembled normal human musculature save for the fact that it was made out of some sort of steel alloy. It somehow hid the joints in a metallic skin. The machete, despite running up it, didn’t even scratch the metal as Drew pulled himself completely out of the way.

“Ki-ki-ki-ki…” Jason’s voice wasn’t loud, but as there weren’t many other sounds in the room, it could be clearly heard, a harsh whisper in an otherwise quiet room. We continued to back away from Jason, but without turning and running, we wouldn’t be able to back away quickly enough. If we took our eyes off the killer, however, there was every chance that he could just attack us. Jason swung again, and Drew stepped back, slapping the blade away with his prosthetic once more.

I looked to my sister, and she nodded. We were on the same page here. We needed to get out of this room as quickly as possible, but the quickest route possible, casting _Soukotte_ , wouldn’t let us bring Drew with us, at least not at the amount of energy we’d be able to muster at the moment. Normally, that spell does quite a few things for us. It increases both our perception and our reaction times based upon the amount of energy that we place into the spell. It’s actually a derivative of kinetomancy, which is why we’re able to interact with things at that speed without imparting significant force. Unfortunately, it uses almost double the energy for each additional person included in the effect. Therefore, the spell was considered and the idea discarded.

Instead, we yanked Drew back from Jason’s latest swing, and muttered, “ _Sfumure_.”

We cast a veil over ourselves and Drew, effectively disappearing from sight. Our tattooed skin began to tingle with the casting of the combined spell. Veils are something of a specialty of ours, and the way they work is a bit counter-intuitive. The spell itself doesn’t actually make the caster invisible. Even the most talented wouldn’t dare to do that. For something to be truly invisible, light has to fully pass through the object to the other side without being interrupted by anything. This includes the pupils of an eyeball. Doing such a thing, the caster would effectively be blinding themselves, and that wasn’t something we were in the mood for. No, what we did instead was something that was damn close. A veil affects how people perceive the caster. A weaker veil would, more or less, act like those mosaic effects that are used to hide someone’s face in anonymous interviews. Stronger, more complex veils, are better, allowing you to reduce your visibility to not much more than a few flickers in the air, to some shadows where they shouldn’t be. Of course, it did far more than that. The veils created a sense of normalcy in the air around you, an aura of notice-me-not that people tended to get only around the homeless and those asking for charity. Combine the suggestion with a reduced profile of visibility, it was far too easy to remain unnoticed. Theoretically, Jason wouldn’t even see us.

Theory became fact as confusion flared up in the masked killer, and his eyes darted around the room behind that hockey mask. Perfect. A sense of relief flushed through us, and we slowly but surely, while tugging on Drew, began moving toward the exit. We needed to do this carefully; veils were too easy to break when moving, and if we weren’t careful, Jason would just attack. The killer continued looking around, now turning his body as he did so. At least we think that’s what he was doing. Veils have a nasty side-effect that reduces your own perception while under them. Details of the room eluded us, but we could still see Jason, see how close he was. His confusion and rising anger made sense, but we still needed to get out.

“Ki-ki-ki-ki…. Ma-ma-ma-ma…” Jason’s harsh whisper was faint and a little confused. Our hearts pounded harder at the reminder he was there, and we increased our scurrying speed, dragging Drew along. Our slightly larger friend wasn’t extremely frightened himself, but his anxiousness made him eager, even as we pulled him along. Jason continued to look around while we moved.

The three of us made it to the door, and we tapped Drew’s shoulder three times. Luckily, the conference room’s door opened outward, and it would be trivial to open it. The moment we did so, however, the veil would drop, and Jason would know where we were. We were pretty certain that we could run fast enough to avoid him initially, but if he was anything like his movies, he _wouldn’t_ tire. We would. Our best bet would be to get him to more favorable ground and then attack, assuming he’d be able to follow. If he didn’t, or if he went after the cops… We didn’t want to think about that possibility. We just—

Drew shoved the door open and shoved us through quickly, breaking the veil as he passed through himself, and not even two seconds later, Jason’s machete slammed against the doorframe. There was no way that Jason should have been able to be there in time to swing that quickly, not if the veil had been working as intended. God, could Jason see through veils?

“Run!” We weren’t sure if it was Drew that shouted that or us, but it didn’t matter as the three of us took that advice and made our way out of the room. The three of us stayed loosely together, letting Drew take the lead as we headed deeper into the wing. His longer legs made it so he outpaced us easily.

“Outside!” We called, and Drew’s feelings spiked with acknowledgment before he made a sharp turn down the side hallway. We didn’t head toward the main entrance, for whatever reason, but we trusted Drew. We ran further down the hall, passing the police tape-covered doors of the men’s restroom that Clark Pell was attacked in. The restroom wasn’t exactly at the end of the hall, and there was something near the door that we didn’t notice earlier, a fire exit.

We looked back, and we saw Jason lumbering down the hall after us, moving faster than anyone his size had any right to, but that fit with him being exactly who he looked like. God, we hoped that this was more than it seemed. You don’t stop Jason Voorhees. You slow him down. You maybe get away, but he always comes back. If this… whatever it was… was anything like the real Jason, and given his apparent ability to see through veils, there wouldn’t be any success in fighting him. There would just be survival until morning.

We made it to the exit, Jason hot on our heels but still out of machete range as we looked back at him. The exit was a glass door with one of those red push handles on it that allowed it to be opened easier in the case of an emergency. Drew was going to reach it first, and we got ready to go through.

“It’s alarmed!” Drew called as he pressed up against the fire escape, and we nodded. It didn’t take much to gather up the requisite energy for this bit. See, magic tends to interact with electronics in strange ways. Something about the chaotic energies and feelings of mortal magics disrupt the inner workings. Anything newer than some time in the mid-sixties or seventies tends to go up quick just by us walking by it. Now, fire door alarm systems are a little more robust. They’re usually holdovers from a time back before everything had a computer chip. That said, we knew how to weaponize the effect, create a focused bit of chaotic magic that can even affect older and more mechanical things. We raised our right hands and, with the utterance of a simple word, unleashed the hexing energy at the alarm system, causing sparks to spew out from it.

“Outside, now!” We ordered Drew, and he shoved the door open, letting the cool night air in through it. We moved outside, ignoring the smell of fresh-cut grass in favor of running again, down the paved staircase onto the sidewalk that ran parallel to the hotel. Knowing that Jason wasn’t likely far behind us, we made a hard right, heading down the sidewalk toward the parking lot. Maybe we could use the parked cars as cover, hide from Jason until he gave up, or maybe we could get an open enough area that we could just hit him with every single spell we could.

We almost could hear the musical accompaniment as Jason chased us outside, and we were unsure whether the harsh whispers announcing his presence actually came from him or from within our own minds. We just knew that the ball of rage and murderous clarity was after us, not even all that far behind us as we rounded the side of the towering hotel.

The parking lot that we headed for was a medium sized lot on the north end of the hotel, probably sized to fit about four hundred some odd cars in about a dozen rows of around thirty. The lot was one of four lots that the hotel had set aside part of it for convention guests, and as such, the lot was only about halfway full when we got out. The convention had ended for the night, after all, and those that weren’t staying at the hotel had to go elsewhere. We supposed that the rest were probably up in their rooms, leaving their cars. Strangely, nobody seemed to be milling about, but we suspected that was because this was a Thursday, and the convention would be in full swing tomorrow. Plus, the police had parked elsewhere, likely closer to the front entrance so that they could make it inside faster. With no one about, we could use the remaining cars in the lot to help us.

Lucky us.

We looked over our shoulders, and we could see Jason about twenty yards back, lumbering along. We were still outpacing him, but, given his source, that wasn’t something that would end up mattering much. Jason always caught up to his victims; it was only a matter of time. We just needed to not be his victims here. Easier said than done, but at least the killer had stuck to using his machete rather than going for something a little more ranged. We looked forward so we wouldn’t trip as we finally made it to the asphalt of the parking lot. Drew looked over his shoulder at us, and we could see his anxiety written all over his face, even in the dimly lit parking lot. We really weren’t sure where we needed to go, but if we could get some distance between us and Jason, we were sure that we would be—

“Down there!” Drew called out, diving forward. We followed almost instantly, rolling behind the car as we heard a whistling sound. Once made it behind the car, our hands touching the ground, still warm from the day, we heard the thunk of an impact along with the hissing of released air. We looked to Drew, who gestured to the driver’s side’s front tire. A harpoon had embedded itself in the black rubber, and we winced. “Bastard has range now. I don’t know where the hell he got it.”

We shivered, and then it was our turn to be confused. Jason’s emotional signature disappeared, and as we looked under the car, we couldn’t see his booted feet moving around the lot at all. So, we pushed ourselves off the ground to peer through the car windows and look around for the killer.

This was a mistake.

A gloved arm crashed through the passenger window, wrapped around one of our necks, and pulled us taut against the car. God, she couldn’t… we couldn’t… I couldn’t… We couldn’t breathe. The grip was so tight, it _hurt_. He was blocking our airpipe, and we grabbed at his arm with two of our hands, thrashing against the grip. His anger had returned, obviously with him as we thrashed.

“Faith!” Drew called out, and we snapped to attention, looking at us being held by Jason and then looking to our wrists. Good. We had remembered to put on the bracelets this morning, even if we didn’t remember seeing us put them on. They were fully charged, and this was the best way for us to get free of him. We continued struggling in Jason’s grip, trying to get leverage against the car, even as we pulled up our right hand to aim at the tail-end. If we aimed this wrong, it could do more harm than good. Jason was inside the car, holding us against it, and we needed to get free. The right angle on this would have us slip loose.

We’d designed these bracelets much on the same principle as our Harry’s force rings. They’d trap kinetic energy for each movement, usually a little at a time, and they’d store it up to a point. When we were ready, we’d be able to unleash it with a simple application of will. Now, the reason both of us didn’t make them was simple: this was meant to make up for a lack of evocation talent. Of course, if this worked, we’d probably make another set so we could double the effectiveness. Aiming our arm near our struggling self, and knowing that we could hold our breath just a bit longer, we channeled some energy into our tattoos, synergizing even more as we breathed deeply. If we couldn’t get this shot done right, we’d be done for.

Jason looked up at us, and then we heard the metallic hissing noise of a blade being withdrawn from a sheath. We turned our struggling eyes toward Drew as we focused on aiming with our other set. He had pulled a Ka-Bar knife out of a concealed sheath that he had somewhere, and he brought it down on Jason, slashing across the killer’s forearm, causing sizzling hiss as his not-quite blood spilled to the ground. Jason’s grip loosened on our neck, and a small smile came to our faces. We unleashed all of the force in our bracelets then, aiming at an angle, and the car launched off the ground, tumbling side over side, giving us the chance to slip completely out of his grip.

We came closer to each other, worriedly checking how bad the damage was. There would be bruising, for certain, but we’d survive, even if it hurt to breathe at the moment. We’d used our other set of eyes to keep watch on the car that had flipped over. We weren’t going to let him out of our sight so he could do what he wanted again. Still, we backed off from the car, crossing the aisle to the other side, not wanting to give the killer any advantage, and we watched. There was no way that flipping the car did anything to the masked madman. Jason Voorhees always came back, even when having his brain destroyed. It was a fact of life. Still, the blood hissing meant something, and we looked to the blade Drew had in his hand. A clear slimy liquid coated it rather than the red blood of a human. Ectoplasm. It was ectoplasm.

Jason was a creature of the Nevernever, or at least he was made of the stuff from there. That meant something. It meant he had weaknesses.

“Iron,” we said, our voices slightly raspy from the choking. It hurt to talk, but we were able to use the bond to dull the pain some. “We need to hit him with something made from a lot of iron. Or use a lot of fire.”

The passenger door of the car popped off, and Jason climbed to his feet, turning toward us.

“Can you guys make enough fire?” Drew asked, shifting to a defensive stance in front of us, bringing both his blade and prosthetic arm together.

“Maybe if we were fresh, but fire’s not our specialty,” we said. “Lord, we wish Harry was here.”

Jason lowered his machete as he started to walk toward us. Yes. Walk. He’d been running the entire time that we were, but now he was walking, and that damnable noise echoed out again.

_Ki-ki-ki-ki… Ma-ma-ma-ma_. It was maddening. The noise… the music. How he managed to have musical accompaniment was beyond us.

“What can you do?” Drew asked, and we could feel the nervous tremble that he’d tried to keep from his voice, even as we continued backing away, trying to keep our distance from Jason.

Jason reached into his coat and pulled out a pitchfork. We couldn’t figure out how the killer managed to fit it into there, but he did. He threw the farming implement like a javelin, and we stepped forward, bringing our left hands up. We focused, gathering the energy we needed at an instant, and despite the pain we felt, we cried, “ _Fusegi!_ ”

Our shield spell popped into existence a moment later, the tattoos on our stomachs tingling. A translucent silver curved plane stretched before us, just in time to catch the flying pitchfork and stop it in its tracks. Our shield rippled, and the pitchfork dropped before collapsing into ectoplasm. Great. That was how he had it. He formed it himself. Wonderful. We dropped our shield and fell back, saving our energy for anything more that he might use.

“We need a plan of attack,” Drew said. “If we just keep defending, he’ll wear us down.”

“And we’ll die,” we said, trying to keep the quaver out of our voice. We might have been able to do something, but sunrise was God knows how far away. “What about the—”

“Ex Machina’s parked in the far end of the lot,” Drew said, and he looked around. “Can you throw another car at him?”

We shook our heads. It took nearly all the force in the bracelet to do the first one. Wind would be too difficult to use for that purpose.

“What about the hiding thing?” Drew asked.

“He saw through it back there,” we said. “It might be good for confusing him for a little, but it wasn’t long before he could see us. We don’t know how.”

Jason continued closer, stepping into the boulevard between parking aisles. The one that we crossed a half-minute earlier. He was so close now, and while we knew that it was likely going to be pointless, we started gathering energy so that we could cast. Jason needed to be kept away from us. We didn’t want to be grabbed again. We didn’t want to risk being strangled or worse.

Drew, for his part, stayed in the defensive stance, ready to strike out the moment that Jason got close. We were pretty confident that he’d go for killing blows if he could, but we weren’t sure how well he’d be able to.

Jason started reaching into his coat again, and we tensed. It really could have been anything that the killer could pull out of there. He’d used a number of weapons in his movies, and any one of them could kill us just as dead as the next.

Tires squealed as a car powered down the boulevard between the aisles. Jason turned to face the noise, given only seconds warning before he crunched up against the steel bumper of a car. The upper half of Jason’s body slammed against the windshield while the lower half was drawn beneath the car. For a few seconds, his body struggled, but then he collapsed into a clear-ish liquid, splashing against the glass of the windshield. The tires squealed once more, and the scent of burning rubber wafted over as the car came to a stop. We could feel a familiar emotional aura from within the car, and we let ourselves hope that it was over as we looked the car over.

The car was a white sedan, Harry’s tail from the police station, and it sat idling only feet away from where it had slammed into Jason Voorhees. The driver had turned on the windshield wipers, which only moved the translucent slime of ectoplasm along the glass, leaving sickly-sweet smelling streaks all along it. As we moved, we could see the driver clearly, and it suddenly made sense why he would be tailing Harry Dresden. The driver had rolled down his window, revealing his dark-haired, ivory-skinned face to the world. The man was far sexier than any man had a right to be, and he knew it as he gave the three of us a reassuring smile that wouldn’t be out of place on a romance movie star.

“Looked like the three of you could use some help,” his smile widened further, shifting into a cocky grin. “Plus, I always wanted to run Jason freaking Voorhees over. Good to see you, Faith, Molly. And I suppose you too, _Warren._ ”

We breathed out a sigh of relief and a smile of our own hit our faces. “Thomas!”

The night was starting to look up, after all.

  



	15. Chapter Fifteen

Thomas Raith was an unnaturally good looking man. We mean the unnatural part literally. See, Thomas is a vampire of the White Court, and he’s the younger brother of Lara, the one who had sent us on this mission at the convention in the first place. Unlike his elder sister, Thomas was far more trustworthy and there was good reason for that. The vampire had saved our lives a number of times before this, and he actively fought his nature at times. Plus, Harry trusted him, and Harry usually is a good judge of character. Of course, Harry might be a bit biased; Thomas is his older brother, after all. That relationship could easily explain part of why Thomas had been tailing Harry this evening—he wanted to make sure Harry was safe—it didn’t explain, however, why he hadn’t just traveled _with_ our mentor. Nor did it explain why Thomas had been here in time to save us, not that we were ungrateful.

When Thomas stepped out of the car, we found our appreciation growing. Like we said before, Thomas Raith is an unnaturally attractive man, like someone had airbrushed reality to make him. He was just shy of six and a half feet tall with shoulder-length dark curly hair and high cheekbones that could cut paper. He peered at us through his grey eyes and smiled, exposing his perfectly white teeth. Thomas wore a pair of skinny jeans and a loose V-neck tank, exposing the top of his perfectly formed pectorals. We needed to make an effort to tear our eyes away from looking at those muscles as we clenched our left hands against our pants. Stupid sexy vampire. He might as well have been wearing nothing at all.

Okay. We might have liked that a little too much. The only way it would have been better was if Harry had been standing next to him, wearing only his duster. Right, we really were getting off-track. Besides, they were brothers, despite what a number of people thought. We didn’t need to think of our mentor in that way, no matter how enticing the thought was, but it was oh so enticing. Well, on the plus side, that sort of dream would be better than Jason.

“Raith,” Drew spat, grimacing. Our friend really didn’t like Thomas for some reason. We suspected it had to do with his vampiric nature, but Drew never actually gave a clear answer about it when we asked. Of course, the dislike appeared to be mutual, which really didn’t help with ally cohesion. “I suppose we need to thank you for the save.”

That sounded way too much like pulling teeth. They’d been able to work together in the past, but Drew still had issues with Thomas. We needed to talk with him about it later.

“Well, no damage to my car and you’re all right. That’s important,” Thomas said in a voice that was almost too smug for comfort. His voice softened a little as he looked to us. “It’s been too long.”

“It has,” we said, offering our friend a smile. Though we had to force a little of the speech on one end, and it came out slightly raspy. “We’re sorry that we stayed away so long. We heard there was a bit of excitement last Halloween.”

“Yeah, you could say that,” Thomas said as we felt him quashing a flare of guilt that popped up. “It was certainly crazy. And very Harry.”

“He got recruited.” We cocked our heads, and we felt a rising sense of something that felt like a light mix of fear and disgust. Our skin tingled under our tattoos, and we carefully cleared our throat.

“He did. Warden Dresden,” Thomas said. “Regional Commander of the Eastern United States, but the guy in charge of the West Coast, Ramirez, doesn’t have any seniority over him.”

While we’d found out that Harry had become a Warden, we hadn’t really thought about how that must have been affecting him. Becoming a part of what had hounded him for a good portion of his adult life had to be hard. Even after Harry had the Doom of Damocles removed from him, he still had Wardens like Morgan looking at him like he was the Antichrist. And now he was one of them. We couldn’t even imagine how it must have felt for him. We should have been there, should have been able to trust him, to help him. We’d need to do better about that.

“… why?” We… no, I, asked as my skin stopped tingling. My voice, without Molly’s joining in, was raspy as I tried to breathe in more air. “Why would—”

“—they recruit him?” Molly finished for me, and then she placed a finger over my lips. She didn’t want me using my voice. “Why didn’t he say no?”

It hit me at that moment, a memory flaring up about that book, and I knew what Thomas would say about it. I’d have cut him off, but Molly wanted me quiet. Instead, I moved closer to Drew, and I lightly placed my hand in his.

“Harry said it was bad,” Thomas said grimly. Worry for Harry flared up within him, but he quashed that as well. Thomas had gotten good at doing that. “That there’s a limited number of Wardens left. They put him in charge of the Eastern States, but they didn’t put any Wardens under his direct command.”

I nodded and made a sort of affirmative sound, but then I coughed. Then I coughed some more. Forcing air through my throat _hurt_ , but I couldn’t stop the coughing as I tried to get breaths in between bouts. Molly’s concern hit me first as I bent over, covering my mouth from another cough, but Thomas and Drew’s feeling soon joined my sister’s. I just couldn’t stop the coughing, which wouldn’t be so bad if I were at home, but standing in the parking lot, there was nothing I could do.

Molly snaked her arm under my shirt and started rubbing my back as I coughed. It helped some, but not enough. When we were linked, we mostly depended on her voice, with my rasping one adding some undertone, but it was both of us speaking. Now, she was trying to help with the cough. “Easy, Fai… I’ve got you.”

My tattoo started to tingle, and the pain from the coughing abated a little. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t stop. My throat was too dry, unfortunately. _Water_.

“Molly, what’s…” Drew paled some as he looked at me. I met his eyes for half a second before another cough took me away from even the start of a soulgaze. Maybe that was for the best, as a soulgaze when I was like this was unlikely to be worth it. If I was to do one with Drew, I’d prefer it when we were in a more appropriate setting.

“She needs something to drink. Should be able to stop the coughing with that,” Molly said, looking to Thomas.

“Right.” Thomas reached into his car and pulled a bottle of something out and handed it to Drew who handed it to me.

  


Without looking, I took the bottle and drank it down. The ice-cold water chilled my throat, soothing the pain and easing the itch at the back enough that I was able to stop my cough. God, I hated when something like that happened. Half the bottle gone, I lowered it and looked to everyone else.

“S-sorry.” I shook my head. My throat still hurt, and my voice came out raspy, but I could speak. I smiled at our vampire friend while leaning back to let my sister and friend support some of my weight. “Thomas, not that we didn’t appreciate the save…”

“But why weren’t you with Harry?” Molly picked up on my question. Good thing too, it still hurt a little to talk, and I didn’t want to break out coughing again. I sipped the water.

“Council’s involved here,” Thomas said, his emotional aura flaring with a bit of concern, but like the previous times, he quashed it down. Thomas was getting oddly good at that, even if I could still read his overall emotional state pretty well. “I didn’t want him to get in trouble for being around me.”

I frowned as that brought up a few things. I could sympathize with Thomas’s plight. If the Council found out about the relationship that Harry had with Thomas, at _best_ , they would assume that Harry somehow was under the vampire’s thrall. That was assuming that they didn’t actually believe the relationship existed. The worst-case scenario would be if they did believe that Thomas was related. There would be people within the Council that would want to use that relation to spy on the White Court proper, and, given the war with the Red Court, they would try to leverage it to force political capital. It’s always easier to do something like that when it isn’t _your_ family that you’re worrying about.

I felt similarly about the supernatural and my siblings. Part of the reason that I wanted to stay away for so long was that by my nature, by the fact that I wasn’t even really supposed to be here, I disrupted things. Balance-wise, I figured that I would attract more monsters and other things than were there in the original, and that was all too easily proven with Guase, a necromancer that had learned from Heinrich Kemmler’s teachings, even if it wasn’t from Kemmler himself. She had attacked Drew, and there was all sorts of evidence that she might have turned on my family as well, had she survived. Who knows what else might have popped up if we’d stayed?

Now, I wasn’t exactly worried about my parents. Daddy’s a Knight of the Cross, known to Harry as the Fist of God, and he is highly protective of all of us. Mom? Well, she trains with our father. She made all of our father’s armor and practice weaponry herself. (Well, I helped a little, but she was the main forge master.) Unfortunately, Daddy’s duties take him away at times, and Mom is left watching everyone. Mom might be able to defend herself and some of the jawas, but I just… I didn’t want them to be in danger because of me. It’s the job of the older siblings to protect the younger. Something that I remembered from my first life and kept with this one. While I wasn’t technically the oldest here, I still had a responsibility to keep my younger siblings safe from any dangers that were my fault. At the time, I felt like being away from them was right, but now… I wasn’t so sure.

So yes, I sympathized with Thomas. Harry was his younger brother. Even if he was keeping away to not draw the eyes of the Council, he was keeping an eye on him. That was something I really should have done more of with my siblings. At least I had Molly with me, but I had monopolized her for the past ten months. They deserved the both of us available. Maybe, after this was done…

“So, why’s the Council involved in the first place?” Drew asked. “I thought they didn’t usually get involved in the day to day cases that Dresden deals with.”

“Harry got some warning,” Thomas said. “Black magic’s afoot. Being the only Warden in town, he needs to hunt down the warlock.”

“Great…” I cleared my throat before sipping the water bottle again. I looked to my sister, a thought in mind. I already knew that she didn’t do anything, but I just couldn’t help but worry. “At least Harry’s not likely to come in all stab-happy.”

My sister and Drew nodded, and after a second, so did Thomas. “What about you three? What had you getting chased by the masked murderous moron?”

“Doing some investigation of our own,” Molly said. “Lara contacted us.”

Thomas grimaced. “Oh. I’d offer to help, but…”

“Less people who know, better outlook,” I said, nodding. “Thanks for the non-offer. If we need your help, we’ll ask.”

“Looks like you can provide more of it now though,” Drew said, a frown settling on his face. Though his face remained stoic, beneath the surface, I could feel anger stirring, along with what felt like a bit of worry and jealousy. What was Drew jealous of? “Something change?”

Molly and I frowned simultaneously, though we refrained from joining again as we looked over Thomas. Drew wasn’t wrong. Harry’s brother had managed to quash down most extreme emotions that he felt that differentiated out from the cacophony of others in his aura. However, that didn’t mean we couldn’t tell what he was feeling at any given moment, or more precisely what he wasn’t. His hunger, the bit that came from his Beast, his Demon, it was sated. For now, anyway.

“You’ve been feeding,” Molly said, looking curiously at him. “Does Harry know?”

“I think he suspects,” Thomas said. “But I haven’t told him.”

I shook my head. Something about the situation niggled at me. Thomas had fed, sure, but I didn’t think that he did it the normal way for a White Court vampire, at least not recently. He might have had something when he dealt with the events of last Halloween—I’d heard that the Erlking and the Wild Hunt were in town—but this was different. Oh. It was that. It definitely was that. God, if it was that, it was just _perfect_. I couldn’t let this be passed up.

“Tomas,” I said, emphasizing the vowels. I smiled as more of my memory unfolded. I needed to do this, needle Thomas about it. Plus, it changed the subject to something a little funnier rather than letting the others focus on the fact that he was feeding again. They didn’t know the full story, and I thought I did. Or at least I knew more than they did. Hopefully my throat wouldn’t give out on me while I did this. “What do you think of Molly’s dye job? Really hides her split ends, right?”

“What split ends?” Molly growled out, and while I knew she probably didn’t actually believe it, she’d check anyway to make sure. I’d probably do the same if she mentioned them. Not that I was vain or anything, but my hair is _nice_ normally. Yep, there it was. Right on schedule. She pulled strands of her hair down so she could look. I could feel her indignance from where I stood, and I pushed my amusement back at her. She glared at me through her not-so-split ends, but my attention had turned to Harry’s elder brother.

Thomas managed to quash down the initial feelings of surprise and fear that passed through his aura, but he couldn’t quite get them all the way down as he put up a veneer of confusion. “Why would you ask me that? I mean, her hair looks fine, but I’m not really one to judge.”

I just gave Thomas a look. He couldn’t hide this from me, not with what I remembered. Sure, the memory itself wasn’t really that helpful with the situation that we found ourselves in, but _Tomas_ was _precious_. I had a hard time just holding my giggles in and intentionally stretching out his name, adding a lisp to the s. To be fair, it really was ingenious what Thomas was doing to be able to feed. I wasn’t entirely sure that it was feasible in the long-term overall, but it worked for what he needed. The humor derived from the situation more came from how uncomfortable it made Harry. Would make Harry. Will make Harry?

Past life memories of a future that you remembered not being a part of are confusing things.

“Mmm-hmm…” I made a noise, and then I sipped water. I winked at Thomas and zipped my lips dramatically.

“I get the feeling that we’re missing something,” Drew said, looking to my sister and then back to me. “Fai, what’s going on?”

“She won’t say,” Molly said, brushing her hair back with her left hand and lightly prodding me under a rib with her right. I gave the appropriate wince, but I was ready to start giggling, even with the throat wound. God, I had nearly died twice tonight, and I just was finding the situation with Thomas, his brother, and the hair salon so funny. “Not if she doesn’t think it’s important.”

I shook my head. “S-sorry.” Giggles threatened to escape my belly, but I held them in. “Just wanted to change the subject some…”

“Maybe we should get home to rest,” Molly said, looking to Drew. My bo—my friend nodded and gestured toward his car with his prosthetic.

“Yeah, you do that,” Thomas said with a smile. “If you do end up needing my help…”

“You’ll be around,” Molly said, leading me toward Drew’s car. We knew we could count on Thomas to be there when he was needed, even if he didn’t think he would be. Thomas really was a good man.

Even if he was a stupid sexy vampire.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

Molly and I walked up to the door of our studio apartment a little before one in the morning. Drew had offered to walk us to the door, but I’d insisted he go home and get some sleep. We’d told him to make sure that he was behind a threshold and not dallying in his car. None of us wanted a repeat of what had happened a year and a half ago when he’d lost his arm. If I’d insisted he stayed the night then, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. After the events of the evening, I’d very nearly insisted he stay now too, but we’d only seen monsters thus far. Monsters weren’t likely to be able to do anything beyond the threshold, and besides that, nothing seemed to be directly targeting anything beyond the convention hall.

Molly looked to me as we stood outside our apartment, and I nodded. We each raised our hands, doing our respective parts to unlock our wards before she unlocked the door properly. While she worked on getting the door open, I rested my left hand against the door frame, feeling the thrumming energy of the protection we’d set up. It felt almost like hovering my hand above a live wire, but I knew that the wards my sister and I put up would never hurt either one of us or most people. People with hostile intentions would get a zap proportional with how hostile their intentions were. We hadn’t set up anything with any significant lethality as neither Molly nor I had the power nor the willingness to kill someone who intruded, but they were designed to severely inconvenience anything that wanted to break in.

Molly opened the door, and we both stepped in. With a wave of her hands and a muttered phrase, my sister lit some of the candles we had set up throughout the apartment, and she turned to me.

“I’m going to get some water, you want any?”

I shook my head and walked across the room, plopping myself at the foot of our bed, and I started to get ready for bed. It really didn’t take all that long for me to change. All I did was lose the pants and bra. The shower we’d taken at the hotel was sufficient enough for everything. I balled up the sweatpants and my bra, throwing them in the corner, and I stretched, checking myself for any bruises that might have formed. While I did this, I thought over the day. In hindsight, Splattercon!!! being attacked almost seemed like it was inevitable. Things had been quiet since Molly and I’d gotten back to Chicago in the middle of last November, and other than some rumors of warlocks being hunted by the Wardens and something with an amusement park north of the city, nothing major had happened. Any large gathering of people could have been a target for something like this, but it just happened to be the convention that two young wizards in training were attending. Something seemed off about that. Add that mention of black magic that Harry was on the lookout for? And the Venatori thing? Two plus two did not equal potato. There was a connection. Somehow.

Molly came back over, dressed much as I was now, two glasses of water in hand. She shoved one into my own hands and sat down next to me. “Drink.”

“But…” I stopped with a wince. My throat still hurt from Jason’s attack. It honestly probably wouldn’t be better until the morning or the day after.

“Drink. You need it,” Molly said. “I could feel your pain from the kitchenette. You might be blocking it out, but you’re shunting some of it to me.”

“Sorry…” I whispered and then sipped the water, letting the pain come back more fully so it could be soothed. I didn’t want to push anything onto my sister, never really wanted to cause her pain anyway. She’s… more important than I am in a lot of aspects.

“Not your fault,” Molly said, wrapping an arm around me. I leaned into her embrace, laying my head on her shoulder. I could feel her smile. “It was that… Jason… thing. Whatever it really was.”

“Wasn’t… Well, wasn’t the same,” I said, sipping the water again. “The Reaper… He attacked my shields, drained them. The attack was emotional as well as physical. It was like he was feeding off of it. The desperation, the hopelessness… the... the…”

“Fear?” Molly asked, and I nodded. “But Jason’s attacks were purely physical. There wasn’t an emotional aspect to it other than the plain fear we felt because it was Jason Voorhees.”

“Was different with him too,” I said and then sipped my water again. Only about half the glass remained. “The Reaper… he didn’t feel like someone in a costume. He was the Reaper, no more, no less. Jason, once he got going, he felt like Jason Voorhees, but there was that time in the beginning.”

“The rising rage. Like someone filling a pitcher.” Molly nodded. “Not from the same faction, then.”

“I don’t think the Reaper was the sole fear-eater.” I thought back to earlier, when Pell had been attacked. There had been an aura of fear then, trying to incite it within someone else, and it had worked, despite Pell’s defiance. I didn’t know what had been in that bathroom, and Nelson really hadn’t been much help. Still, it made sense.

“The bathroom,” Molly said, coming to the same conclusion as me. “You don’t happen to remember anything that might be useful to know here, do you?”

I shrugged. It had been impossible to keep the fact that I had a past life away from my twin. With how often the two of us merged, if we had any real secrets from each other, it was more due to a lack of investment in figuring them out than any actual attempt to prevent it from happening. So, Molly knew about as much as I could tell her.

“Just a vague feeling that it’s related to something I should remember. Nelson and Rosie…”

“I’m glad we managed to cut that off at its head. Seeing how they were…” Molly shuddered. I couldn’t blame her. She still was dating Nelson, after all. “They’re doing a lot better.”

“Yeah. We still need to make a batch of ‘tea’ for them tomorrow before we go into the con.” I yawned. My throat didn’t feel like it wanted to explode anymore. It was getting pretty late.

“Better than the alternative,” Molly said. “Can’t you try to remember some more about this? I mean, you clearly remembered _something_ tonight about Thomas, even if you were a brat about it.”

“Takes one to know one,” I said, and then I sighed. “I don’t know why I don’t remember anything about this. I mean, I remembered Rosie and Nelson… I remembered that they needed help. I remembered Harry Dresden riding a T-Rex through downtown, something I deeply regret missing seeing in person… I remember Ivy being in danger from _something_ … but not yet. _I remember how Shiro died_. I told him about it, and he walked to it anyway. I don’t know why I remember some things and not others. I wish I could perfectly recall everything I ever read, but I’m not the Archive.”

“You don’t need to be the Archive to remember like that…”

“It doesn’t matter. You know what the main thing I remember is, Molly? The thing I remember most about the entire situation that gets me every time?” I closed my eyes as I felt her squeeze my arm. “In all of them, I was an observer. I was looking through Harry’s perspective, to a Carpenter family that didn’t include _me_. I got to see Harry with Susan. How he felt when she was changed. How he felt when she was lost to him… I got to see _you_ do things that you would never do now. I didn’t exist here.”

“But you _are_ here, and if you start spouting off about how you shouldn’t be here, Fai, I’m going to forcefully correct that.” Molly didn’t quite glare at me, but it was close.

I shook my head. “No… I’m past that, I think. But remembering… trying to remember… forces me to acknowledge that maybe I shouldn’t be here. That I shouldn’t be your sister, but I grew up into it. We grew up together, and we’re closer than most siblings ever get. I don’t like remembering a place where I didn’t.”

“Even if it helps?”

I shook my head and turned away. Some of the memories were pleasant, associated with joyful times that had happened or would happen. Some were painful, memories of deaths and what had killed them. Some memories genuinely weren’t there. It had been nineteen years since I’d last laid eyes on these perspectives, and for some of them, it had been longer. I remembered broad strokes overall, but specifics for each case of Harry’s… I wasn’t exactly perfect.

“If it helps… I hope that I’d actually remember it.” I shook my head. “I think… the black magic that Harry’s looking into… I think it was related to you originally, back there, but that doesn’t mean that it is here. You haven’t broken any of the Laws, to my knowledge, nor have I.”

“The tea is borderline,” Molly said.

“They choose to drink it,” I responded. We’d told them the expected effects of it, and they drank. It worked for them, and I knew that it had helped. It was far better than using any sort of mind-affecting magic. “And we know it’s safe.”

“True. You’re proof enough of that, I suppose.” Molly and I moved up the bed, getting under the covers. Always was comfortable to lay here with her. “So, what’s up with the black magic then?”

I shrugged. “Someone else? Harry’s source is wrong? Doesn’t matter. We’re not Wardens, and it’s not really our job to hunt down warlocks.”

“Yeah. Our job is to hunt down whatever it is Lara wanted us to.” Molly made a face. “I don’t even think we picked up a lead on that.”

“Jason, maybe.” I breathed in through my nose. We still smelled like that hotel shampoo and soap, despite the sweat we’d worked up running from Jason. It actually smelled nice. “I don’t know.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Molly closed her eyes, and I could feel her start to relax. “’night, Fai…”

“Goodnight,” I said, reaching up a hand to brush her bangs out of her face. Molly always did fall asleep easier than I did, especially if the two of us were this close together. Heck, it probably wouldn’t take all that long for me to sleep either, as close as the two of us were. Molly’s presence was as comfortable to me as mine was to her, probably something to do with the twin thing.

When we were younger, we had issues spending the night at other people’s houses if both of us weren’t there. I don’t know what I was thinking when I decided to run away without her. Either time. Even if I might deserve some sort of punishment, she definitely didn’t, and I couldn’t punish the both of us for something that I did. No… I just needed to… I yawned and nuzzled closer to my sister… I supposed it was time… My eyes…

Couldn’t stay open…

Sleep…

My eyes snapped open when I heard the front door shut. I couldn’t remember if we’d actually locked it or not, but that didn’t matter. Our wards should have kept out any intruders that would break in with any sort of hostile intent. Molly and I had made sure of it. Even if the door had been fully unlocked, the wards automatically set themselves once we were inside and getting ready for bed. It was a part of our nightly ritual. I checked beside me to see my sister still sleeping, and I detached myself from her embrace with care. A glance at the wind-up alarm clock that we kept on the nightstand told me that I’d only been asleep for a couple hours, but it really hadn’t felt all that long to me. I felt like I’d just laid down. No matter. I needed to see who or what had messed with the door. Odds were it was just the wind. If we hadn’t latched the door properly, the wind could have blown it open as we unfortunately found out in February. The things at the convention should have stayed at the convention. Probably. The wards should have kept them out, especially when combined with our threshold.

Checking to make sure Molly was still asleep, I carefully slipped out of bed. It wouldn’t do to wake her over nothing, and odds were, that’s all this was. Still, it never hurt to be too careful. I snagged the wand we kept on the nightstand as a backup. We really needed to look into getting a gun of some sort for the more mundane sorts, but I doubted any of them would be able to get past our wards. Could have been an animal. None of them really would trigger our wards. I mean, we could have calibrated our wards to react to animals, but then we’d basically be covering our door with a magical bug-zapper, and I didn’t want to walk out of the apartment to find a bunch of dead animals on the porch. The wand was primarily there to help with force and illusion abilities, but it was usable by either one of us. Holding it along the length of my forearm, I stepped out of our bedroom and into the living room.

Candles burned on the tables of the living room, illuminating the bookshelf-lined walls and the threadbare carpet that lined the floor. The front door stood closed opposite the bedroom entrance, and the lone light switch, disconnected from anything inside, was visible near the entrance. I think it controlled the porch light or something. As I surveyed the living room, my eyes passed over the three mismatched couches and coffee table that sat in front of the fireplace, locking onto the one thing that was out of place. I couldn’t believe it.

“Harry?” I asked. He stood at the bookshelf to the left of me, facing it. For some reason, he was shirtless. I thought I saw his duster and shirt laid on the longer couch. He shouldn’t have been there in the first place, let alone shirtless. What was he doing in our apartment? “How did you get in?”

“Ah… Grasshopper… Faith. You always were the lighter sleeper of the two of you,” Harry said, still looking over the bookshelf. I couldn’t quite see what he was looking at from the angle I stood, so I moved closer. His back grew a little more detailed as I approached. Harry was actually in pretty good shape. He had a runner’s build, which left him rather lanky, but his back had some serious definition. Plus, there were scars here and there. Exit wounds from a couple bullets, remains of burns, a stab wound near the shoulder… Harry had lived anything but a quiet life. Honestly, he wore it well. “As for how I got in… I taught you everything you know, kid. I didn’t teach you everything _I_ know.”

I pouted for a second. I knew that my mentor was better than I was with magic. For now, anyway. There were aspects that both Molly and I handled better than Harry ever could, but he still knew a lot more than we did. Of course, the only way to find out what was to ask. “Why are you here? Didn’t you go home?”

“I did. Got bored and decided to find the two of you,” Harry said as I got closer. He pulled a book from the shelf, but I couldn’t quite make out the title from where I stood. I blame his height. Harry was just too stupidly tall. Nice enough ass though. “Real interesting collection you have here. You managed to get a good amount of the classics.”

“We tried,” I said, looking past Harry to try and see what he grabbed. The shelves contained a number of fantasy novels from various authors. Brooks, Pratchett, Jordan, Tolkien, Anthony, Card, Rothfuss, Rowling, and Butcher all had places on the shelf. It looked like Harry was looking at… Huh. Butcher shouldn’t have had nearly that number of books on that shelf. Did one book have ice on its cover? Wait… it wasn’t the only one. It looked like a couple more had ice in various places, sticking out of the books. Weird. Just weird.

“I just have one question, really.” Harry held up the book in his hands. On its cover was a man dressed in a duster with a runed staff in his right hand. He looked around the corner of a building, and he wore a— “What’s with the hat? I mean, I don’t wear one. At all.”

I blinked, and as my eyes adjusted, the book’s title became clear. _Dead Beat_. Harry held a copy of the Dresden Files in his hands, and there was no way that this was possible. At all. How in the hell? There was just no way. None.

“Doesn’t make sense…” I reached for the book in Harry’s right hand. “That shouldn’t be here unless…”

Harry grabbed onto my wrist with an unblemished left hand, and he pulled my arms together, lifting me up with them. He pulled me close against his chest, and a wicked smile came to his face.

“Now Faith,” Harry said, replacing the book on the shelf next to an iced over copy of _Proven Guilty_. “You shouldn’t just take things like that. I’m going to have to punish you.”

He lifted me off the ground and threw me backwards onto the nearby couch. I quickly moved my arms away from where they landed, barely avoiding a pair of red and green striped straps wrapping around them.

“What are you doing, Harry?” I pushed myself off the couch and reached for the wand that I’d brought with me. Where was it?

“Looking for this?” Harry held up the wand in his left hand, twirling it around his fingers. “I told you that you needed to be punished.” Harry’s eyes took on a blue light, and above his eyes, a second pair appeared, purple, and a sigil vaguely suggestive of an hourglass appeared on his forehead. When he next spoke, his voice carried a feminine echo. “Now then, I believe I’m going to enjoy this.”

Oh. Damn.


	17. Chapter Seventeen

Lasciel. The Temptress. Seductress of the Fallen. Lasciel was one of thirty Fallen Angels trapped within thirty pieces of blackened silver. Thirty Denarii. The Fallen couldn’t interact with the world directly save through the use of the coins as a conduit. Three years ago, the leader of the Knights of the Blackened Denarius tossed the coin containing Lasciel onto our lawn while I was watching my youngest brother play. I’d very nearly picked it up myself, but the coin ended up in the hands of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Harry had picked it up before my brother, his namesake could, and I picked up my brother at the same time.

Harry couldn’t have given into the temptation. He didn’t in my memory. Lasciel’s shadow ended up… something. Harry lost her somehow, but he hadn’t taken up the coin. It ended up with someone else. Somehow.

Yet I couldn’t deny what was in front of me. I couldn’t just say that the sigil on Harry’s forehead was false. I couldn’t say that the second set of eyes were an illusion. I couldn’t just say that I was hearing things with the undertone to his voice. No. The person in front of me was Lasciel _working with_ Harry. Or maybe she was controlling him somehow. Yeah. That had to be it.

I rolled backward away from the couch, scrambling to my feet. I might not have had any implements on me, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t work magic if I needed to. Maybe I could get through to him, stop him from doing something horrible to me. Harry was a stubborn man, and I knew for a fact that he didn’t like giving his free will up to anything. To do this, to take up the coin, something had to have happened. It just didn’t make any sense. Not with those books there.

“Harry, snap out of it!” I continued backing away. Harry’d said that he wanted to _punish_ me, which hopefully implied that he didn’t want me dead. Of course, with Lasciel there, who knew exactly how things would play out. “This isn’t you! Snap out of it!”

“Snap out of what, Faith?” Harry twirled my wand around his hand again, the feminine undertone to his voice sounding amused as he did so. I couldn’t clearly get a lock on Harry’s feelings here. It was muddled. “I’m clearly here and on my own.”

I glanced back toward my bedroom doorway, or at least I thought I did. A bookshelf stood at the entrance of where I came in, its shelves completely full. That made no sense, but then again, neither did Harry giving into Lasciel. I honestly couldn’t see any circumstances that he’d do such a thing. It just didn’t make any sense, and I needed to capitalize on that.

“Lasciel, let him go. You have no power here!” When in doubt, imitate people worthy of respect. I needed to get Harry free of Lasciel, giving her up. He couldn’t just give in. “I know Harry Dresden, and he wouldn’t choose you!”

“Ah, but he did, didn’t he?” The voice that came out of Harry’s mouth was far from his. It was a hauntingly beautiful female voice, and it chilled me to my bone. I started to back away toward the door. “It’s cute what you are trying, child. You may be related to a Knight, but you are not one yourself. But then, you aren’t really real, are you?”

My fingers twitched. I needed to figure out what to do next. I couldn’t face down Harry Dresden on a normal day, but this was Harry Dresden empowered by a _Fallen Angel_. If we fought, I would lose. Hard. There was a way out of this, a way to survive, but I needed to time this just right. “Harry wouldn’t give in. You had to have tricked him. Lied. Even then, he wouldn’t have given in. He’s too stubborn!”

“I’m not sure whether that was a compliment or an insult,” Harry said, Lasciel’s voice echoing his own. He flicked his wrist, and his blasting rod appeared in his hand, the runes lighting up a dark red. “But I promised punishment anyway. Don’t worry. This will only hurt… a lot. _Fuego_.”

Shit. The lancing fire leapt from the blasting rod toward me, and I had milliseconds to execute this. Thrusting both arms forward and exerting a lot of my will, I flipped up the couches, the table, and two bookshelves, flinging them at my mentor. I then dove for the door, using the same spell to blast it off its hinges. While I could have used my speed spell here, it would have taken a lot more energy than what I’d done, and I didn’t want to run out at the wrong time.

No, instead, I ran out the front door, leaving Harry behind in the living room of the apartment, and I went into the park that was two blocks down. It wasn’t really a big park, more of a small neighborhood playground that had a swing set with a pair of chain swings, a manual merry-go-round, and a metal slide that looked like it hadn’t received a proper cleaning since the mid-eighties. The ground was lined with mulch, and a pair of benches for parents to watch the little kids on were at the edge. A low fog-like mist hung around the area, wafting around and making the air feel wet and increasing the earthen woody smell of the mulch as it crunched underfoot.

“ _One… Two… Freddy’s coming for you…”_

At this time of night, the playground should have been abandoned. Maybe the benches would have had a few hobos sleeping on them or something, but it was anything but empty. The swings were moving, back and forth, back and forth, and I saw a pair of tow-headed girls no more than seven pushing themselves on the swing. The girls were identical in look, down to the last eyelash, and one wore a blue sundress while the other wore a green one. The only differences in their dresses was the color, and they even wore the same shoes. I cocked my head slightly as a feeling of recognition stirred within me. I couldn’t place where I knew them from. They just seemed familiar to me. While I stared, they simply continued to swing back and forth, and I could almost hear them… singing?

“ _Three… Four… Better shut your door…”_

An explosion sounded from where I came from, and I started running again. Back out onto the street I ran, intentionally flaring some energy so as to attract Lasciel away from the park. I didn’t dare use an illusion or veil that Lasciel would see through, but to keep her/him/them away from the children, I needed the Denarian to focus on me. Fortunately, that was something that didn’t seem to be a problem of mine. The explosion sounded again, closer. Great. I turned to look at the park again… Wait, I couldn’t have run that far already. Where had it gone? No matter. Getting away was the top priority. Down the street further, round that corner, past those buildings, I ran from the explosions. Shit, they were getting closer. There! That alley. I ducked into there, moving further in. If I had to stand and fight, even for a last stand, it was as good a place as any.

” _Five… Six…. Grab your crucifix…”_

I swore I could still hear the singing, but I still couldn’t make out the words. I extended my senses as far as I dared to with the Fallen still out there. A Knight’s help would have been wonderful against him, but I didn’t even have that. _Harry_ currently kept one of the Swords of the Cross ready for its next wielder, and I knew that was either Karrin Murphy, my mother, Jared Kincaid, or possibly some sort of Jedi. I couldn’t really remember the specifics about _Fidelacchius,_ and I suspected that was due to divine interference, even if I could remember broad strokes. Either way, I knew that _I_ was not the wielder, and that knowledge would not help me with the upcoming doom headed my way.

” _Seven… Eight… Better stay up late…_

Then I heard it. The sound of metal on brick echoed out through the alley. Five individual metal claws scraped along the wall, and I turned toward the alley entrance. Brick by brick, the claws scraped, and a figure wearing a black fedora entered the alley, walking along the wall. Sparks jumped from the clawed gloves he wore as he ran them over the bricks, and I frowned. The man’s face was hideously scarred, much like Harry’s hand, only somehow, he apparently survived the flames that would have killed a lesser man. There was no sigil, no second set of eyes, but his distinctive nose and blue eyes identified him as much as his red and green striped sweater.

“Nine… Ten… never sleep again…” The words came unbidden to my mouth. I knew this thing, and it was the only thing that made sense. Him being present made it make sense. “The straps on the couch… they were you…”

The man tipped his hat with his free hand. “Guilty. Just like you, little whore.”

“I got away then,” I said, gathering my will. This was a dream. That thing in front of me was only an aspect of my nightmare… unless it was like the Reaper. He felt too real. “Freddy Krueger. Why are you even here? And what do you mean guilty?”

“It’s your fault, you know. You don’t belong, and your knowledge can help, but you don’t use enough of it. You’re afraid to… that’s enough. That’s what brought me here,” Freddy said, baring yellowed teeth. He tapped his claws on the wall as he walked closer to me. He certainly took his time. “I’m going to make them all afraid, and when they are...” Freddy grinned grotesquely. “All you can eat.”

Jason had been harmed by steel, as had his constructs. Iron. Jason was a Fae thing, was Freddy? How would I even test that in my dream? I thought I remembered Harry saying something about the Nevernever and dreaming, but I hadn’t been paying attention that lesson. It didn’t matter. I could do this. Freddy never really scared me. He was always too silly to be frightening, even when his kills were gruesome. Lasciel scared me more than he did. Plus, Freddy felt strange. Muddled even.

Still, I didn’t think letting Freddy talk more would be conducive to my continued health, and since he wasn’t human, possibly killing him wouldn’t be an issue. Focusing my will was difficult without my gloves, but not impossible. It wasn’t like I hadn’t cast this spell a number of times before. I really didn’t _need_ my gloves to cast it. Fear worked perfectly fine as a fuel source for will, and my power sparked. I slammed my hands together and thrust them at the Nightmare King.

“ _Fulminara!_ ” I cried, unleashing the spell, and I felt it as the electric charge ran down my arms, collecting into a ball between my two hands. I gave a mental shove, and the lightning struck out, impacting Freddy Krueger with a bolt of superheated plasma and electric arcing, a true lightning bolt. The resultant thunderclap pushed the scarred maniac off his feet, and I took that chance to run. I didn’t know if I’d be able to outrun Freddy here, but I wasn’t just going to let myself die.

“Come back here, you little slut!” Oh, wasn’t Freddy just full of lovely epithets? I didn’t see him as I ran out of the alleyway, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t around. Freddy could pop up anywhere.

Okay. Freddy Krueger. That meant this was a dream, and if this was a dream, Freddy was in his element. That said, this was _my_ dream, not some freak spirit from the Nevernever’s. I had control over it. Freddy never had to deal with a wizard before, and while I wasn’t quite there yet, I was close. So, thoughts. If this was my dream, and I had control over it, then all I had to do was exert my will, just like casting a spell.

I glanced back behind me, and I started to focus. If there was no alley, Freddy would have to find another way out. Brick by brick, a wall formed, sealing the alleyway off as the wall became flush with the buildings on either side. Yes. This was my dream, and I had control over it. I just needed to figure out the right way to end it, to make it so that I would wake up in my own bed.

I started moving again, at a more sedate pace this time. If Freddy was going to pop up, I needed to be ready for him. I passed by a storefront with several mannequins displaying fashions that I had neither the money for nor desire to wear. I mean yeah, they looked okay, and I supposed that they wouldn’t look all that bad on me…

A breeze blowing across my suddenly bare legs alerted me to the red leather microskirt I now wore. Its accompanying blood red corset was pulled tight over me, and my shoulders were bare. Mercifully, I was standing in a pair of strapped flats. I could run in these if need be. Man, I really needed to not let my thoughts wander while in a dream, and why did I feel like I was forgetting something?

“I thought I was supposed to be the seductress,” said a feminine voice behind me. Oh no. No freaking way. I’d realized that this was a dream. There wasn’t any way that Lasciel should have found me. Of course, it being a dream definitely explained Harry picking up the coin. There’s no way that Harry would ever do that in real life. “What do you think, my host?”

“It’s better than Frankenhooker, I’ll say that.” Harry’s voice came from the same direction, and the hairs on the back of my neck started to stand up. “Of course, the little bitch needs her punishment. _Forzare!_ ”

I threw myself forward, but it wasn’t enough. The invisible wave of force picked me off the ground and sent me flailing through the air into the very store window I had stopped in front of. I expected the pain of impacting the glass to be something that should have jolted me awake, but the glass shattered just before I got to it, barely pelting me as I passed through. I thought I was going to hit one of the mannequins, but one reached up and snatched me out of the air. Its feminine face morphed in that moment into the grotesque face of Krueger.

“Window shopping. Better be careful, I heard the sales can be killer.” Freddy laughed as he brought his clawed hand down, and I scrambled to pull up my left hand, willing a shield between the two of us. Without a focus, the shield barely stopped him, and he still managed to push through somewhat. The tips of his claws scraped my chest, cutting the leather, and I kicked him in the face, forcing him to drop me. No. I needed to get out of here. Freddy in here, Harry out there… I climbed to my feet and ran away from the window.

There! A door. The door that ostensibly would be to the shop’s interior if this were anything but a dream stood like a lifeline held to me. My door. I threw open the door, and without looking back, stepped through. The shop I expected didn’t stand before me, but instead I had come out the front door of the Johnson place across the street from my family’s home. Slamming the door shut behind me, I ran across the street, hopped the fence and dashed up to the front door.

My father kept a spare key hidden within a false rock among the garden, and this being a dream, I knew I’d find it immediately. In a fluid motion, I retrieved the key, unlocked the front door to the house, and slipped in. I threw the door shut and locked it behind me. I could only hope that the protections my family had would be enough. I stepped away from the door and into the foyer, using this lull to take a small breather so I could focus. I knew this was a dream. I knew consciously that wasn’t actually Harry or Lasciel out there, but my heart pounded just the same as if this were real. I just hoped that the threshold would stop Lasciel long enough for me to wake up. Otherwise, I had no clue what would happen.

“Oh Faith…” Harry’s voice, accompanied by Lasciel’s echo, stretched my name out as he called from down the street. I could hear him clearly. “Faith… Jessica… Samantha… Carpenter…”

I winced. Harry didn’t know my full name, my real name. He didn’t know the inflections I used. He didn’t know how to pronounce it just right the way I did, but he did it anyway. Stars and stones, he did it anyway.

“Ah…” The dual-toned voice sounded amused as Harry stepped into view, his duster flapping in a breeze. “There you are. Think you’re safe there, do you?”

I couldn’t look away. Not even the coppery smell of my bloody chest could make me look away from this as fur started to sprout on Harry’s body, and muscles bulged. Harry’s spine pushed out, nearly visible as a line of darker, thicker fur took over his back. His duster wrapped around him completely, melding into his transformation as his jaw distended and thick, sharp teeth became visible as he opened it. Harry’s new form resembled a wolf, if the wolf had taken steroids and walked on its hind legs. No wolf was eight feet tall, nor did any wolf have curved ram horns or dark feathered wings coming out of its back. Only a Denarian wolf would have glowing red eyes accompanied by a second set of purple eyes above them. Frankly, the sigil of Lasciel was just the icing on the cake. Harry had gone full demon.

The Denarian stepped forward toward our front door, and when he reached it, he… knocked. I could practically see the grin on his lupine face, if I looked past the teeth.

“Little pig, little pig, let me come in.” Harry’s voice came out clearly, even with the echo from Lasciel, and the line was pure Dresden. I wasn’t going to answer him. I couldn’t, so he knocked some more. “You’re supposed to say something at that, Faith.”

Maybe if I stayed quiet, he’d go away, and I’d wake up. I just needed to hold out while he knocked. He couldn’t do anything if he did that. The knocking grew louder, more insistent. The loud banging echoed through the house.

“Door! Coming!” The unmistakable voice of my youngest brother came from upstairs. No. No, this wasn’t right. I couldn’t let him get the door, not with Harry out there. Harry could not answer the door to find Harry outside. I refused. I couldn’t let it happen. I started for the door, but the foyer extended in front of me. The doorway, the stairs were too far. My brother stepped into view.

“No!” My voice came out as little but a whisper, and a burned hand lowered over my mouth. I squirmed, and I looked back to see Freddy towering behind me, a wide grin on his face. His breath smelled foul, like old burnt meat.

“Watch this, kid. It’s going to be fun…” Freddy ran his clawed hand down my side, lightly. “And then we’re going to have fun.”

“No… nononono….” This was a dream. I had control. Harry got to the door. I couldn’t let him open it, but I couldn’t move.

“Mmm… such deliciousness…” Freddy gave me an exaggerated sniff. “Your fear. You’re more afraid of that than you are of me, but we’ll change that.”

The foyer continued to stretch before me. He turned the doorknob. Why couldn’t I move? This was a dream. This was _my_ dream. I needed to move…

“Guess I’ll force my way in,” said the Denarian outside before he unleashed a peal of laughter. Then the door opened widely and he lowered to all fours, looking at my brother. Little Harry stared up at the Denarian that shared his name, and it unleashed another peal of laughter, opening its jaws wide in the process. No. Harry wouldn’t do that. Harry Dresden wouldn’t do that.

“No. God no…” I slammed my head back against Freddy, and I ran forward, but I was too late. Jaws snapped forward, large enough to come down on a neck and quickly. “HARRY!”

*************

I sat up in my bed with a start, my heart threatening to beat out my chest. God, that was a horrifying nightmare. It had to have come from the previous day’s events. My eyes flicked to the analog alarm clock that we had. It wasn’t quite time to get up yet, but I was getting to the point where I was ready for it. We had things that we needed to do, and with the con kicking into full gear that day, we needed to get up.

I glanced over at my sister. Some point during the night, she’d fully covered herself. I could feel her sleeping next to me, so I nudged her a couple times. She didn’t even make a sound. I nudged her some more, and not even a peep or bit of movement. I pulled down the covers so I could nudge her directly, revealing a black fedora, a burned face, and a red and green sweater.

Freddy rolled over in the bed and pushed me down into it. “I know it’s your first time. Don’t worry. The bleeding is normal.”

Freddy jammed his clawed fingers into my stomach, and I started screaming.

*************

“Fai, wake up!” Molly shook my shoulder, and it felt like she’d been doing it for a bit. “Fai, come on…”

My eyes snapped open, and I sat up in bed. My mouth was dry, and I could feel my heart pounding. Hell’s bells, I wasn’t even sure I was awake as I shivered. The sweat beading on my forehead felt clammy and damp, and my hands were shaking. No, my entire body was shaking, shivering. It wasn’t right. The dream wasn’t right. Stars and stones, I hoped I was awake.

“M-M-Molly…” I stuttered, my fear response heightened, but then my sister… _my sister_ wrapped her arms around me and started rubbing my back. God, it was really her. I could smell her, taste her warmth. I could feel the faint lick of her aura against mine, encouraging our joining, but I subtly pushed against it, and I felt her do the same.

“Shh…” Molly murmured, still rubbing my back and projecting comforting feelings. “It’s over now. It was just a bad dream. You’re fine, Fai. You’re safe. It can’t hurt you here…”

I shook my head. “It was just… I know it was… but…”

“It’s okay, sis…” Molly pulled away so she could look me in the eye. “We needed to get up anyway. There’s things to get done before Drew gets here.”

“Yeah… You’re right.” My breathing slowed with the reassuring presence of my sister, and I relaxed somewhat. The dream still wasn’t right, but it was over. “We should get started…”

Shaking off the aftereffects of the dream, I let Molly lead the way as we started to get ready. Once we were done showering and getting dressed, we’d head on into our lab.

The two of us were wizards, after all. Plus, doing magic would help wash some of the lingering fear from my system. I hoped, anyway.

I just needed to see if we had anything on phobophages. It seemed like it would be a valid research topic, after all.

  



	18. Chapter Eighteen

Molly and I had gotten lucky when we’d picked out our studio apartment. The building itself had been refurbished from the prohibition era, and at that time, I think it had been a grocery or some sort of shop front. Given that our apartment was on the ground floor, unusual for a studio, we actually had what was probably a good portion of the store as our living space. What had been the glass store window had long since been bricked over, leaving us with standard apartment-sized windows on our front.

We’d found the room that eventually became our lab purely by accident. I’d been putting some clothing away that Molly had gotten as a gift and I accidentally pulled on one of the hooks in the closet. Part of the back wall pushed away at that, and we descended the stairs we’d found on the other side. It amuses me to say that our lab probably was a fallout shelter or a speakeasy at some point in time, possibly both.

Of course, none of those trappings were there now. The lab’s walls were bare concrete block, and the floors were slab stone with marks indicating some sort of tiling or furniture had been there at some point. Molly and I didn’t quite have the resources of Harry, but we did have a few wire shelves on the wall with color-coded containers holding ingredients that we’d managed to gather. Wooden bookshelves held spellcasting books we’d purchased and hadn’t left in the main apartment along with five three-ring binders, several notebooks, a few piles of loose leaf, and four sets of sticky notes, all with notations on spellcasting, potions, and metalworking techniques that I might need to use. We had books on magical creatures, potions, spells, religion, and even some RPG sourcebooks on the shelves. Four plastic tables with metal legs sat at varying points around the room, each with different projects mid-completion on them. One held a pair of gloves and a roll of what looked like black yarn on a spool. My next pair of gloves was going to have carbon nanotube yarn embroidery for the necessary runes. Another table had Molly’s idea for a dual-wand, and the other two had other projects that were more into incipient stages.

We had one wooden table in the center of the room, and on it was a gas burner with a line connected to a propane tank that we had under the table. Sitting on the table, next to the burner, were two glass Erlenmeyer flasks along with some glass stirring rods. Our potions bench. Over in the far-right corner of the room, a set of sheet metal was stacked next to a gas-powered welding station along with some safety gear. While I couldn’t exactly do the big metalwork in the lab and get it out, I could get the smaller stuff done. I had a yard for the bigger pieces. The opposite corner was clear of all clutter though, and embedded in the ground was a perfect iron circle to be used for summoning.

What can I say? Harry’s lab was a bit of an inspiration for our setup.

When we made it into the lab that morning, we knew exactly what we needed to do. The research on phobophages could wait until after we got the potion started. Molly started gathering the ingredients from the containers while I filled each flask with purified and distilled water and kicked on the burners.

“I can’t believe that she ran out already,” Molly said as she pulled a container of each color off the shelves, tossing the green and the blue ones to me so I could lay them near the burners. “We made a good amount last time.”

“We gave some to Nelson too,” I said with a small grimace. My voice had cracked a little, and my throat still ached. Still, I was better than before I went to sleep. Thank God for the power of sleep, even if my dreams were terrible. Sure, I might not have been completely better yet, but it was enough that I could function. I rubbed at my throat a bit then placed a flask on each burner, careful not to let the flames lick too high. I opened the blue container and threw some bits of paper from it into each of the flasks. _It helped him._

Molly grimaced, but she nodded and brought the more delicate containers over. She popped open the green container and threw a pinch of dust in each flask. “Honestly, they only should have needed one dose each. You did.”

_Different situation._ I shook my head and gave a mental shrug. The medicinal tea that Rosie had been asking about was actually a magic potion that was meant to eliminate addiction, in theory, anyway. Originally, it was brewed by the White Council to deal with addiction to Red Court vampire venom. The potion was meant as a purifier, something that was able to reset the body to the state it was in before the venom affected it. We knew it worked. Bob the Skull, Harry’s bound spirit of intellect, gave Molly the recipe to brew it, and I’d used the potion while under the effects of a near-overdose of Red Court Venom. What I remembered of that timeframe was spotty at best, and they weren’t exactly fun memories to try and recall.

Of course, neither Rosie nor Nelson were, to my knowledge, addicted to Red Court venom. I doubted either one of them had ever knowingly seen a Red, nor would they really recognize the vampires if they had. No, both of our friends had an altogether different addiction, something far more mundane.

“Heroin’s a bit different than Red Court spit.” Rubbing at my throat again—maybe I shouldn’t have spoken out loud—I shook my head. Both Nelson and Rosie had it bad before we started them on the “tea.” Nelson had been in and out of rehab, Rosie too, but it hadn’t seemed to do any good. When we found out Rosie was pregnant, I thought about what might work and mentioned it to Molly. Since it wasn’t quite a Law violation, we went with it, using Nelson as a test case first. _We’re basically repurposing the original intent of it. Harry’s mentioned all sorts of strange unexpected effects. We’re lucky that it’s just taking longer._

“True.” Molly popped open the violet container next, crinkling up some dried flower petals into each flask, and the contents shifted to purple. Ah… potion making. It made such pretty colors. “Might be how it varies on the addiction interaction.”

_Yeah._ I opened the indigo container and added a pinch of salt to each flask. It was easier to focus on this because it needed to be focused on. Anything that kept me from thinking about that dream made things easier. It really helped that I enjoyed potion brewing. It wasn’t quite a science; there was more art to the methods than specific measure, but it was a lot of fun. _And it’s better than the alternative._

Molly looked at me curiously before popping open the orange container and taking the box of matches from within. She struck two of the matches, and dropped each one, still burning into a flask, causing a small gout of flame to kick up from within. The potions changed color again, to red this time.

“The alternative, huh?” Molly frowned, and I could feel her trepidation. I shouldn’t have said that. “Something to do with your memory? What exactly does happen in your memory version?”

“You don’t want to know, Moll.” I opened up the yellow container and reached inside, intent on leaving it there. It’s why I spoke aloud. There were things in my memory that I’d rather not dredge up, and what had been done to our friends there... wasn’t really worth it.

Before I could place the other torn bits of paper in the flasks, Molly placed her hands over my own. Great. She wasn’t going to let this go. “I want to know, Fai. Talk.”

“Molly, this isn’t—”

“—up for discussion, Fai.” Molly squeezed my hands. _… It’s something to do with what’s going on at the convention, isn’t it? Something to do with me?_

I shook my head. “Not…” I frowned. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. I didn’t want to lie to her about that. She deserved to know so I corrected myself. _Sorta. It’s not you you, but it sort of was you then. But definitely not you you._

Molly raised an eyebrow, and I could feel her amusement, followed by an urge for me to go on. Great. How should I phrase this? I mean, this wasn’t exactly something that would be easy to talk about.

“Okay. Nelson and Rosie… I remember them… what happened to them. It wasn’t pretty.” I shook my head. _It was actually pretty bad._

Molly just looked at me, unblinking. I still felt her urging. She really wanted to know. Damn it. I tried to bring myself to remember.

_Okay. From what I remember, they appeared in the, you know, and they were addicts then. Well, no, not exactly. By the time Harry encountered them, they were better, practically fully recovered. Thing is, the recovery wasn’t natural._ I frowned again as I focused, trying to pull up what I could remember about Nelson and Rosie from my past life’s memories. It wasn’t exactly an easy thing to do, getting a specific memory, but Molly had asked. _Their minds had been modified such that they felt a great fear of heroin itself. From what I remember, they were afraid to even touch the stuff. A new practitioner had done that to protect the baby, testing the spell on Nelson first. When it worked, the practitioner used it on Rosie. Unfortunately, Nelson got the rougher version._

God, I was glad that wasn’t the case here. Nelson wasn’t highly paranoid that things were going to get him as he fought off the compulsion. Rosie… well, she’d been in much better shape. I just wasn’t sure what had gotten her into the hospital. Complications with the baby? My memory of the specifics surrounding what had happened to the two wasn’t completely there, just the broad strokes.

“So, what did that have to do with the convention?” Molly looked to me. Then I felt a dawning realization wash over her. “Wait.” _Was I… Was I the practitioner?_

I grimaced. She’d figured it out. I hadn’t exactly tried to keep it hidden, but it really wasn’t something that I had wanted to focus on. The memory of what exactly happened to Molly wasn’t completely there, but I knew the basics.

“Yeah. It was you,” I said out loud, but then I backpedaled. “Well, not _you_ , you, but the you that existed there. You’d gotten your magic at fifteen and started rebelling a bit. You got yourself arrested, and then Mom turned into a control freak or something so you ran away.”

“You mean like you did here?” Molly asked, and I winced.

_Different set of circumstances._ I didn’t exactly glare at my sister, but she squeezed my hands.

“I know.” Molly smiled softly at me. “Still, I guess I can sort of get it, but why did I go for the mind modification?”

“Love,” I said. “Same reason we’re making this potion. You cared about them enough to try and help them.” I raised my hands at Molly’s look. _I think someone might have given you the idea, but the decision was yours. You thought you had the right to it, so you did it. Black magic’s funny that way._

Molly closed her eyes and sighed. “I probably wouldn’t have gone to Harry without you suggesting it. Not without trying to learn more on our own first. She didn’t have you.”

I shook my head. “She wanted to impress Harry by learning on her own first. Almost got her killed by the Council.”

“What happened then?” Molly asked. “To Nelson, Rosie and I?”

I focused some more, and then I shivered. That almost felt like a bit of a brain freeze. I needed specifics, but they just wouldn’t come to mind, and each time I tried to think of them, my head started to hurt. “I… I can’t remember, sorry. I _think_ you didn’t end up getting killed by the Wardens, but I can’t tell. I don’t know why. Maybe you ran away. Maybe Harry took you on as an apprentice, I don’t remember. Hell, maybe you went full Warlock.”

Molly shot me a look, and I winced. Okay. I remembered more than I was letting on there, but I really didn’t want to worry my sister. Molly probably felt that I was holding back some. _That’s not good enough, Fai. What happened?_

I sighed. “You didn’t get killed. I can’t really remember the specifics, but I think Harry stuck his neck out for you. Beyond that…” I wanted to shrug, to indicate some nonchalance, but what happened to Molly couldn’t happen here. I wouldn’t let it. I didn’t think it even had a chance of happening here, not if I was in time.

“Beyond that?” Molly asked, tapping my hand with her finger.

“Nothing that should matter. It’s not happening here.” I glanced down toward the ingredient container. “Not so long as I can stop it.”

“That’s why. Isn’t it? The reason you always harped about mind magic?” Molly squeezed my hand again. “You were worried about it happening here, whatever the thing you’re worried about is. Don’t you trust me?”

The amount of hurt she put into that last bit was almost convincing. I knew better, of course. She wasn’t offended that I wouldn’t tell her, though she was curious, but instead she worried for my worry. _I do, Moll. You’re my other half. It’s just that… we’ve both been tempted, and I’ve seen things that could lead you down that path. It’d take you from me. It could have been so easy just to make Nelson and Rosie give up the heroin._

“Yeah, but we know the Laws of Magic,” Molly said. “That’s why we decided to try the potion.”

“But even with that knowledge, it’s tempting. Even more so when you’re angry at someone for something.” I thought back to a year and a half ago, when I’d thought Drew was dead. Yeah, I’d been tempted. If Nelson had been the father here, Molly would have been _very_ tempted.

“Still doesn’t explain what that had to do with the convention,” Molly said.

I shrugged. “Honestly, it hurts to try and remember right now. I think something happened then that was like what’s going on now, but I couldn’t say why for either time.”

“Well, that’s more Harry’s thing to figure out, isn’t it?” Molly squeezed my hand again, trying to comfort me though I could feel her own worry. She was right, of course, about the convention, anyway. We got Harry involved specifically because we didn’t think that what happened to Pell was natural. It probably wasn’t the Reaper, but something had appeared in that bathroom. Something similar. Harry’d figure it out. “Besides, we still need to find what Lara wanted.”

Of course, with Harry investigating, we needed to keep him from the Oblivion War thing. As much as I had a personal issue with the man at the moment, I didn’t want him dead. Besides, he’d saved my life.

I glanced back down to the potions and then back to our hands. Molly smiled, backing away so I could take the ingredients out and place them in the flasks. I pursed my lips a little, but I stepped back as Molly added the last ingredient. We joined hands at that point, pouring our magic into the potions, aligning each of the ingredients for their purpose and infusing them with our own wills. It didn’t take a whole lot of magic to brew these, but it took some focus for this last part. Of course, once we managed to get the potions shaped properly, all we had left to do was wait.

“I think they might be connected,” I said, once we were finished. “The thing Harry’s looking into and what Lara wants us to find. At least partially.”

“You mean other than the fact that they’re both at the con?” Molly asked, eyeing me as she turned down the burners.

“Yeah,” I said. I thought back to the previous night and the two attacks. Darby Crane had been a non-issue. “Maybe one’s trying to copy the other to hide itself.”

“How so?”

_The two attacks we went through,_ I sent. I’d thought about this a little. _If it had just been the Reaper, I don’t think I would have thought of it, but Jason had attacked us too. Two horror movie monsters._

Molly nodded. _Yeah. At the least, they have the same MO._

“But they don’t, not really.” I brought the images of what I’d been through to bear. “The Reaper… there was no doubt in my mind at the time that it was really him. It couldn’t have been just someone in a costume, not while able to do what he did. He kept us corralled in there, injuring people. He actually killed some, but I don’t think death was the goal. It seemed like he was just trying to terrify.”

“You were coming down from being severely frightened when I got to you.”

I shook my head then stroked my throat lightly. “Most of that wasn’t my own fear. The shields we have? The Reaper cut through all of mine like a knife through butter. I put up _some_ resistance, but not nearly enough. If not for Harry, he’d have had me dead to rights.”

“Good thing we brought Harry in, then,” Molly said, with a none too smug look on her face. Her face softened after a second. “I wouldn’t want to lose you, either.”

I nodded. “Jason was different entirely.”

“Yeah, he did seem strange. Took a few seconds to decide to kill us.”

_To decide to do anything, really, and he only hit our physical shields when we shielded._ I rubbed my throat again. Talking was starting to hurt a bit, but I could hold on. _Of course, I was just glad that he was early Jason. Later Jason would have taken my head off._

Molly hugged me. “Force bracelets. We’re making you some. So, what do you think made Jason that different from the Reaper?”

“I don’t think that they were the same thing.” I hugged my sister back. “Remember that plant monster thing that Harry faced a few years back?”

_The chloro-whatsit that Murphy chainsawed to death?_ I nearly laughed at the mental image that Molly sent my way. She’d sent an image of a super-deformed Murphy wielding a chainsaw three times her height against an unholy cross between a tangler vine and an Ent. Sometimes my sister watched too much anime, and much of that was my fault. “So, what, Jason’s a construct like that thing?”

“Seems a good guess,” I said, swallowing again. It didn’t really help, but it was a lot like a placebo effect at this point. “Jason chased us down, and he didn’t go after the cops or anyone else in the hotel. Plus, his delay could have been something asserting its control over him.”

Molly nodded. “Makes sense. What was the Reaper then?”

_I think it was some sort of phobophage. A fear-eater._ I glanced down to the floor, shivering slightly.

“Phobophage is a pretty wide category,” Molly said. “What makes you think that’s it?”

“The fear it tried to generate, and the power it had.” I shook my head. _But mostly, I think one of them told me._

“In your dream. Fai, we’re pretty well warded here,” Molly said. _We’ve even got a threshold. I don’t think anything nasty should have been able to enter your dream._

“He did.” I shrugged. “Or he didn’t, and my subconscious is a bitch.”

Molly snorted. “Whichever. I don’t know if we have anything on phobophages in here.”

“We’ll find it. I think _Tobin’s Spirit Guide_ might have something.” I smiled. “Still can’t believe that’s a real book.”

“Or that it’s actually useful,” Molly said with a grin. “The potions are almost ready.”

I nodded. The two of us loaded the potions into a pair of plastic bottles, marking them with a label indicating who each “tea” was for: one for Rosie and the other for Nelson.

Then the two of us pulled out some reference material from our library and started researching. I say our library, but it really was only made of a couple shelves with reference materials. It really didn’t take me all that long to scan through an individual page or two with my read speed, and Molly’s was only barely behind my own. We stopped about half an hour later, vowing to pick it up when we got home, as we needed to get ready for the con. Drew was set to show up at around quarter till nine, after all, and we’d been down in our lab since just before dawn.

We headed into our apartment, and I started getting myself ready. Molly was only planning on going that day in a pair of jean shorts and a SplatterCon!!! T-shirt. Admittedly, the cut on the shirt and how short her shorts were exposed quite a bit more skin than I expected, but that was my sister’s style.

I, on the other hand, had something a bit more fun in mind. After spray-dying my hair black—an act that was far less fun than it sounded—I pulled on my outfit. I chose a pair of black stockings and a black dress skirt that stopped about mid-thigh. I wore a collared blouse with a red cravat tied under the collar. I put on a black suit jacket and then sat down in front of our vanity mirror to do my makeup. I lightened the skin on my face significantly and made sure my hair was in the right style. I decided to forego lipstick as it didn’t quite fit the character, even the interpretation I was going with, but I did put on some mascara and eye-liner before I popped in the red contacts I had just for this costume and ones like it. I slipped into a pair of thigh-high boots, and I pulled on my white focus gloves. I then went to the closet to get the final pieces of my costume: a red duster, a wide-brimmed red fedora, and a pair of gold-rimmed John Lennon style sunglasses with reflective red lenses.

Molly cocked an eyebrow at me as I slid the sunglasses on. “Really? That today?”

I smiled, allowing the minor glamour I worked into the hat and glasses to activate, elongating my eyeteeth into fangs. The weight of the contents of the coat reassured me, even if the items in the holsters weren’t quite what they looked like. “I suspect it will be a beautiful night.”

When Molly broke into giggles, I joined her. We might have had more work to do at the con, but I hoped that we’d at least have a good day today. It wasn’t like things would be all that bad with Harry there.

One would think that I’d have learned by now.


	19. Chapter Nineteen

Despite the horrific events the previous night, or perhaps because of them, the parking lot reserved for the convention attendees had already started to fill up when we arrived. I noted an increased police presence along with two news vans and a truck marked with the insignia of a tabloid. I think it was the _Arcane_. The murders done by someone who looked like the Reaper probably had the reporters swarming like sharks in chummed water. There was a story here for them. “Slasher at horror convention, more at eleven.”

As we made our way into the hotel, I let my duster billow out like a cape, and we made our way to the front desk, cutting around the forming line. The line had to have at least four hundred people in it already, some in various costumes, others dressed in plainclothes. There even were three people dressed as the Reaper, but each of them had their masks removed, and none of the three had anything close to the build of the being that had attacked the previous night. Additionally, they carried obviously plastic weapons, and each of those would get marked by the appropriate station. As we made our way to the front of the line, we got several looks. With Drew standing next to me in a dark sweater underneath his SplatterCon!!! Tee and jeans and Molly on the other side, it should have been clear that I was supposed to be there, but as we made our way closer to the front, there were some rumblings that we were cutting in line. I dipped my sunglasses at one of the particularly loud complainers, revealing my red contacts in a glare, and then I simply dipped into my pocket, fished out my Staff button, and clipped it to the lapel of the suit jacket under my duster. Then, sliding my sunglasses back up and adjusting my hat, I made my way to the front with my sister and friend.

I recognized the faces of the people managing the registration desk. Like Molly, Drew, and myself, they were staffers that had volunteered for the convention, and I knew that I’d had conversations with them several times over the course of preparing for the con. I just, for the life of me, couldn’t remember any of their names. Of course, we had to stop when we got there so we could look where to go next. The three of us scanned back behind the staff area, looking for Sandy, but we couldn’t see her.

“Looking for Sandy?” One of the guys manning the desk asked. He was a light-skinned Asian man, probably in his early twenties. He had dark hair, brown eyes, and a warm smile. I knew I recognized him, but I couldn’t place a name to the face that easily. I gave a surreptitious glance to his SplatterCon!!! shirt. Sure, he was identified as Staff, but the nametag he wore was one of those written ones rather than a printed. His said “HI MY NAME IS… The Comic Relief.” That was far from helpful.

“Yeah,” Molly said. “Thought she would be handling registration right now.”

“She’s talking to someone about the printer. It’s still glitching out on us.” The guy shrugged. “We’ve been having to let people hand-write their tags after verifying them.”

“Huh. You’d think that it’d be easy enough to replace,” I said. Printers tended to be an issue for me, even before I got my magic, but I still knew, more or less, how they worked. “It’s not the drivers, is it? Or the cable?”

The guy shrugged again. “Not a clue. I’m not a tech guy, just here to get people registered.”

“I’ll go take a look at it,” Drew said. “Maybe I can get it working while the two of you check on the panel setup.” He nodded to the two of us before heading over to where the computers were set up, an area that Molly and I were forbidden to go into by our very nature. After two hard drives fry themselves near you, you get to be considered bad luck.

“Drea should be the one organizing that,” I commented to my sister and turned to the guy whose name I couldn’t remember. “Is Rosie near her?”

“Last I saw her, she was with her boyfriend, whatshisname…” Oh. Good. I wasn’t the only person who forgot names. Though, I thought his attention was directed toward something else, from what I felt from him. While my costume wasn’t exactly the most modest interpretation, you’d think he hadn’t seen someone dressed up before.

“Ken.” I crossed my arms, and I very carefully did not show fang. Molly stepped forward a little, placing herself between the two of us, not that the guy seemed to notice.

“Yeah. That guy. They were working the Slashers in Film panel. Was supposed to be in the first viewing room, but with the cops…” The guy shrugged. “But it is pretty cool how we got another couple guests for that. Mr. Crane declined to show up to that panel, but Drea got in contact with a Chicago local. She was the one who played victim number five in _Suburban Slasher II_.”

I blinked. While I liked horror films, I didn’t exactly have the names of various actors and actresses memorized unless they appeared in multiples in the series. Frankly, most of the victims tended to bleed together in my memory. Heh. Bleed together. Still, getting an actress that played one of them was a win for the con. Sandy had to be over the moon on that.

“So, the auditorium from last night is closed, then?” Molly asked from beside me.

“Taped off completely,” said the guy. “No entry, except for cops and those the cops give permission to. There’s a lot more of them here today. Something about protecting us. As if they could.” Indignance briefly flashed through him, and he glanced down the hall. He had a brief pang of something like regret and fear then. Did he lose someone last night?

“You’re here,” I noted. “Why come in if you don’t think they can do anything?”

“Please. This kind of thing? It’s going to be talked about for weeks. I only wish I could have seen it.” The guy smirked. “I’m better than any guy in a mask. No matter what weapon he uses.”

“Believe me, you don’t,” I said with a shiver. The memory of the aura alone carried echoes of reflected terror. Seeing the movie monsters live sucked.

“Yeah, you really don’t, Parker.” Oh! That’s what his name was. Molly always was better with names than I was, and I knew she knew I was struggling there. Don’t know if I ever knew his last name, but Parker had been one of the first staffers Sandy had grabbed beyond our core group.

“Right.” Parker winced slightly, but I felt no shame from him, only curiosity and… right. Now I remembered why I hadn’t cared to remember his name. “Anyway, I should be getting back to work. Guests won’t register themselves.”

“Drea’s with Rosie in the Slasher Panel room?” I asked, once more, just to be sure. I really didn’t want us to have to come back out there and deal with him again.

“Should be. She’s talking with that new guest, getting her set up.” Parker smiled conspiratorially, and I withheld a grimace at how he felt. I knew Molly did the same. “You should see the two of the together. Andrea’s all star struck.”

“Right,” Molly and I said in unison. Neither of us had heard about any additional guest until now, but if they were local, it could have been a good thing to counteract the news of the Reaper’s attack. “We’ll let you get back to work.”

“See you.” Parker nodded, turning around toward the registration desk, where the other staffers still worked, and he made it back to his seat. He took one last look toward Molly and I, and once more, I suppressed a shudder. It wasn’t that I disliked being an object of attention sometimes, especially when I was wearing a good cosplay, it was just that something about Parker made me uncomfortable. I wasn’t quite sure what it was.

Probably why his name had escaped me.

“So, panel room?” Molly asked, and I nodded. We needed to get Rosie her tea, and then we really needed to get investigating properly. Whatever it was that Lara had wanted us looking into, we wouldn’t find it just standing around and pretending that the convention was going as normal.

The two of us made our way down the west hall, passing a police tape-covered entrance, the room that the Reaper had attacked in last night. A uniformed patrolman, not Officer Rawlins, stood guard near the door. Well, I said stood, but what I really meant was he sat in a chair near the doorway, looking at the various convention goers as they passed. Certain people in more revealing cosplays caught his eye longer and inflamed a bit of passion within him, but for the most part, he appeared bored, as if watching a crime scene was below his station.

Molly and I noted the special bit of attention he seemed to give us as we passed on our way to the panel room, but we didn’t comment out loud. They didn’t much matter in our dealings with him. Hell, as far as we could tell, he wasn’t worth paying attention to at all. Maybe it was a mistake, but we were far more focused on getting to our destination.

The room that the Slasher Panel was to be in, much like the theater rooms, was a repurposed ballroom or conference hall that the hotel had rented out to the convention. Originally the panel had been scheduled to be in Viewing Room 1, but with the Reaper attack the cops weren’t letting the room be used for convention purposes. Crime scenes needed to remain secure, of course. As such, a secondary room had been chosen, shutting down two additional viewing rooms. The dividing wall had been removed, slid into a hole in the wall and opening the room up and allowing the number of chairs for the audience to sit in to double. Now, the rows split in the middle, allowing a central column for walking, and with fifteen rows of eighteen chairs set up, it was perfect. Or rather, it would be, when the columns were aligned properly, something that Rosie, Ken, and two other staff members were clearly doing when we came in.

With no stage in either of the theater rooms, an area had to be set up in front of the chairs for the panelists to host from. Molly and I were waved down almost immediately to help with that part. We needed to set up a row of chairs facing the audience, and a table was to be brought in from the storage closet. Someone had already put the projection equipment away, and the screens had been raised and put away. The room would likely see a lot of use with the marathon that evening, but for now, it was almost ready for the panel.

Something bugged me about the setup of the room, even as we adjusted it. It tugged on the edge of my senses like something I could only see out of the corner of my eye that disappeared when looking straight on. I really couldn’t figure out what it was as I looked around after setting up the final chair. Sure, Drea wasn’t actually in the room at the moment, from what I’d been able to glean from Rosie, she was dealing with the new guest directly, trying to use another room over as a Green Room while we worked, but Drea’s absence wasn’t what bugged me. The table setup was near perfect, and the drawing on the wall was appropriately scary, depicting a zombie horde rising from their graves, and it hung at a wonderful spot on the east wall.

Wait. Drawing. This had been two theater rooms. Shouldn’t there have been two drawings? On either on the opposite wall or one on the… Huh.

Molly caught a glimpse of me as I made my way across the room toward where the room partition connected to the wall. _Problem?_

_Probably nothing. One of the drawings is missing. I’m going to find it._ I scanned the floor along the partition’s track. Nothing. Not yet, but then, I’d barely started.

_Is it really all that important?_ Molly asked, making her way over to Ken and Rosie, bag in hand. The other two staffers had finished setting up the table and were now going to set up the entry rope from how they were talking.

_Not a clue. Every room’s had one of the drawings though. At least Sandy probably wants them._ There. It had to be that. An overturned sheet of paper laid on the ground about eighty percent of the way through the room. If this was it, it probably fell off while they were opening the partition. I crouched down and reached to pick it up.

It felt almost as if the paper had shocked me as my fingers enclosed around it, but that would have been silly. I was wearing gloves so I couldn’t possibly have felt any sort of static electricity, but my fingers tingled just the same as I handled the paper. I flipped it over, looking at it. Yes. This was the drawing. This one depicted a horrific scene of the classic Universal monsters: Dracula, the Wolfman, the Thing from the Deep, and the Mummy. Something still seemed off about it, though, other than the fact that the monsters were depicted as actually something frightening.

_Find it yet?_ Molly asked, and my head snapped up, toward my sister. I waved the drawing at her, and a smile came on her face before she turned back to Rosie and Ken. I wasn’t even sure what my sister and the others were talking about, but the two looked engrossed. _Good. Is it important?_

I shrugged, looking down at the paper. _It just looks like a drawing to the naked eye, but there’s something about it. It’s tingly._

_Any way to get more than that?_

I frowned at Molly’s question, but I sent an affirmative feeling. There was one way I could figure out why this piece of paper had my senses abuzz. Touching with my bare hand wouldn’t do much to help, given what I felt, but there was something I could do. I focused my magical senses on the paper, and… oh, wow. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but there was something about the paper. It was as if the paper was holding magic within it. I couldn’t tell an exact type or the shape the magic was taking, not with these senses. Hell’s bells.

There was a way that I would be able to see it, to understand whatever was going on with the paper, and to identify it so that I could assuage any concerns. Why a picture of the Universal monsters was magical at all just confused me.

I closed my eyes and took a breath. Then, with an effort of will, I opened my Third Eye, activating my Wizard’s Sight. The term Wizard’s Sight is a bit of a misnomer, but calling it a Wizard’s Surround Sound High-Definition Assault on the Senses just doesn’t have the poetic effect that wizards were known for. The Sight shows things as they truly are, and it isn’t limited by how a normal person can perceive things. It happens to be the one thing that is known to break through veils of all sorts and allows magical bits and bobs to be seen with clarity. When looking at a person, it shows them as they truly are. The Sight sees truth, ignoring everything else. The downside is that anything Seen can never be forgotten. I can still recall with perfect clarity what those four ghouls looked like under the Sight. It’s not a pleasant memory at all.

This is why I chose to focus on one specific spot: the paper. I needed information that could only come from the drawing itself. As I stared at it with the Sight active, the actual art of the drawing faded away. It was unimportant, window dressing disguising its true purpose. Somehow, etched into the paper in the middle of the drawing, was a rune of some sort. Under the auspices of the Sight, it glowed, warm to the touch, nearly scalding, and thin lines came off of the sheet, but several of them had snapped and just hung in mid-air, lying like downed powerlines. The lines that remained intact mostly led out of the room, through walls, through the door, and one connected, as I followed it with my eyes, to the drawing that remained hanging on the wall.

I frowned. The drawing on the wall had a different rune etched into it. This meant something. The runes were doing something. I didn’t know what. Molly had taken to runes a bit better than I had. My best bet was to just remember what these looked like so I could reproduce them for my sister later. Which should have been easy enough, given the Sight. I tried to get the best angle on the drawing as I possibly could to make out the rune.

Luckily my sister, Rosie, and Ken were toward the front of the room… which didn’t explain the feeling I had of two people approaching me from behind. It definitely wasn’t the other staffers that I felt. I whirled around, committing one of the stupidest mistakes that I could have done at that moment. I forgot to close off my Sight.

One of the people behind me was definitely Drea, but it was an Andrea Becton like I wouldn’t have expected to see. They say beauty is only skin deep, but the Sight can see past that. My friend was the exception to the rule. She held an aura to her that was almost supernaturally alluring. Her hair flowed in some unfelt breeze, it shone in an unseen light, but the light was neither Heavenly nor Hellish. Flickers of a golden light breezed across her skin, illuminating her loving nature and her openness. Decades-old bruises sat on her upper arms, and both of her eyes had darkened circles under them. Despite these, her beauty remained. However, her skin, in some areas, in thin lines, had lighter colors than others, and thin, silver and black cords extended from her to her companion. That disturbed me.

Then I looked to her companion. What stood next to my friend was obviously inhuman. No instead, a beautiful marble statue in the shape of a human stood next to her. Its eyes burned silver, and a cruel smirk sat upon its face, somehow making the face it sat on simultaneously smug and gorgeous. The marble of the statue made a nearly perfect facsimile of a human woman, and the flaws within it simultaneously detracted and added to that fact. Claws protruded from the ends of the statue’s fingers, each one attached to a silver or black cord leading to Drea. The statue was off in height, as if something were hunched over, trying to disguise itself with some exterior mask. Cracks and flaws in the facial surface confirmed that theory, revealing a bestial face, simultaneously grotesque enough to have made me wish I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet beautiful enough to create a sense of longing within me. Every so often, the claws of the statue would twitch, pulling on a cord, and a sliver of Drea’s skin would lighten. Hell’s bells. What was this thing?

It took an effort of will, but I managed to slam my Sight shut, forcing the images away to reveal Drea standing there with another woman with alabaster skin and dark hair.

“Wow, your costume turned out great, Fai! I don’t think you’ve met our new guest yet, have you?” Drea asked with a smile.

“No, I don’t think I have.” I let my eyes flick to Drea’s companion. Not in any official capacity, anyway.

“This is Lara Romany, the woman who played the one that got impaled on a railroad spike in _Suburban Slasher II_. She lives in town, and she offered to do a guest talk here, at this panel. We spoke last night about it.” Drea turned to Lara, touching her on the arm. I had to restrain a wince. “Ms. Romany, this is Faith Carpenter, a friend of mine and fellow staff member.”

Lara smiled from her spot next to Drea. “Always a pleasure to meet a fan.”

Great. What was she doing here?

  



	20. Chapter Twenty

I knew Lara used the last name Romany quite often as a stage name, but I had thought that she’d only been in pornographic material before. Somehow, I hadn’t quite managed to connect in my mind the woman being impaled on a large pointy object with the other woman being impaled on a large pointy object. Of course, to be fair, I hadn’t seen much of one, and in the other, I hadn’t even paid attention to her. Sure, Lara was a sexy vampire woman, but come on. Who pays attention to the victims in slasher films? Unless the kill is truly gruesome or they’re plot important, they tend to be some of the flattest characters in film, much like porn protagonists. Wait.

Lara showing up to the convention at all was surprising. Members of the White Court liked to act through intermediaries, catspaws, and whatever other terms that basically mean the same thing. The White Court likes to have influence over things, spreading their tendrils into every pie imaginable. Right now, the only sway that Lara had over us had to do with the Venatori. We stayed out of any White Court plots entirely. I knew, from what I could remember, that it was only a matter of time before that changed. Still, when it came to the Venatori, Lara needed to act more directly simply due to how much discretion was needed. Thus, the restaurant contact. Without Thomas to act as intermediary, Lara had assigned us the mission herself.

Her showing up here implied things. None of them good. Combined with what I’d seen going on with my Sight, and seeing _her_ with it, it was perfectly understandable why I’d used that turn of phrase when talking to her.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Lara’s lips quirked, and I suddenly felt a combination of wry amusement and exasperation coming off her. “Didn’t you listen to your friend? I am here as a guest, Miss Carpenter.”

My eyes flicked over to Drea, and I instantly felt her confusion. We hadn’t had the lunch conversation yet to explain the previous night. There was no way she’d buy the vampire comment without that. Perhaps I’d been a bit too blunt with my initial question, but there were times where bluntness was the right approach. Harry managed to be blunt most of the time when dealing with a supernatural nasty, and it worked out fine for him. Sort of. In fact, if Harry wasn’t being blunt or snarking off to someone more powerful than him, it was entirely possible they’d be offended at that.

Of course, it was possible that I was being _too_ blunt here, as Lara’s exasperation washed over me. Sure, amusement joined it, but Lara was an ally of sorts. I didn’t need to be rude about it. Even if the walking statue was feeding off Drea.

“My apologies,” I said, and then glanced to my friend. “Hey Drea, Molly was wondering about one of the setup options over there. Could you go help her out? I’ll keep Miss Romany company.”

“But…” Drea’s confusion spiked. Understandable, really. I’d been about as blunt as I could possibly be, and it was in front of her. As far as she knew, Lara was simply a guest that had been brought on to pad the panels. The fact that she was local to Chicago meant that the convention didn’t have to pay for her hotel or airfare. She had no way of knowing the predator on her arm. She hadn’t seen what I Saw. God, I wished I hadn’t Seen it.

“It’s okay, Andrea,” Lara said, her voice adding just the tiniest bit of seductive undertones as she touched my friend lightly on the arm. I felt the briefest flicker of a transfer of energies along with a heightened arousal awakening within her. My eyes narrowed as Lara nodded to her. “I’m sure that I’ll be fine with Miss Carpenter. If you are needed elsewhere, I understand.”

I pursed my lips as my friend nodded in return. Drea moved off toward Molly, and I felt my sister brush the back of my mind. _What’s going on, Fai?_

_Check out who our_ honored _guest is._ I followed my friend’s movement toward Molly, and when my sister looked over, I caught her eye. For the briefest of seconds, Molly’s smile faltered, and I felt her concern flare.

_Crap. How’d I miss her coming in?_ Molly paused in her work as she stared at Lara. It was a fair question. Molly and I should have sensed her as she came in, given we knew who she was. Neither of us were trying to clamp down especially hard on our empathy, but she’d managed to elude it until she was in view. It was a bit unnerving, actually.

_Don’t know. I missed it myself until she was right in front of me._ My eyes flicked to Lara, and the exasperation she felt washed over me again, but she seemed to be content to remain patient. _Drea’s on the way over. Could you keep an eye on her? Distract her, maybe?_

_Sure. I’ll be listening in though._ Molly’s smile reasserted herself when Drea was in range, and she started talking to our friend. _Be careful._

I sent a feeling of acknowledgment to my sister before turning back to Lara.

“Done with your sisterly chat, I see.” Lara smiled with her perfect lips and I just wanted to—no. God, no. This was neither the time nor the place. Especially with what she was fresh in my memory. I still could see those silvered eyes, see the hunched thing inside her. Yet… she still managed to be sexy. Stupid sexy vampire.

“Let’s try that again,” I said, crossing my arms and giving my best glare at Lara. “What the _hell_ are you doing here?”

All I felt from the vampire in front of me was amusement, no annoyance, no fear, just amusement. It fit with the way her lips quirked again before she spoke. “Can’t I just be here as a guest? I did act in that movie, a long time ago.”

My glare shifted to a flat look. “Lara, you said that you hated horror films. Why are you here?”

Lara looked around the room, and a small frown formed on her face as she turned to me. “Horror has its charms. Especially when it comes to mysteries related to them.”

“That doesn’t answer the question,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

Lara looked pointedly at me, and then toward Molly and Drea. A feeling of urgency flared up within her as she said, “I’m here to talk.”

“So, let’s talk. What about?” I asked, and again that feeling of urgency flared in Lara as she looked to my friend. Stars and stones, I couldn’t let her keep feeding on my friend. I needed to stop that.

“In private, preferably.” Lara crossed her arms and looked around the room again. Privacy. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be in private with Lara. Maybe once I did, but looking at what I Saw, that thing… No. Privacy was probably a bad idea.

“We can talk just fine in here. Nobody’s listening in.” Nobody but Molly, that is. I could feel her presence in the back of my mind, a comfort that helped me along. The fact that I hadn’t really had it in the dream should have been my first clue the night before. I covered a yawn.

“This is a panel room that will be filling soon,” Lara said, and a bit of exasperation soaked through. “ _You know better_. Let’s get somewhere more private.”

“Like hell,” I said. “I’m not going any—”

Lara grabbed my upper arm.

“Hey!” I managed to avoid raising my voice, but the grab startled me. Luckily, I was wearing my costume, and the fabric prevented her from making skin contact. If she’d done that, she could have me under quick enough. Still, the strength of her grip felt far too much for a woman her size. “Let go!”

“If you act like a child, I will treat you like one. Come with me,” Lara said, pulling at my arm and walking off. Given the grip she had, I walked along with her lest my arm be torn from the socket. While she never applied enough pressure to cause actual pain, it was close enough that I didn’t want to chance it.

“Where are we going?” I asked as we walked. The Friday crowd had started to mill about the hallway, now that they were past registration. Lara and I drew a few glances as we passed them, but none approached. I guessed that we didn’t look all that odd, given the situation. I started contemplating gathering my will, but casting any sort of spell in this situation was an exercise in futility.

“Just move,” Lara said, continuing her walk. It really wasn’t all that far, where we ended up, just a bit further down the hallway where the restroom signs were displayed. The men’s actually had a line coming out of it already, given the lack of availability of the other restroom on this floor. I suspected the police tape remained up on the other side of the conference hall. The women’s didn’t have a line yet, but that didn’t mean much as it was earlier in the day.

At first, I thought Lara would take the two of us into the restroom, but instead, she went into the darkened conference room across the hall. This room hadn’t been reserved for anything, as far as I knew, and it mostly just had a table and a few chairs. Lara lightly pushed me toward the chair before going to the door and locking it behind us. She flicked on one of the light switches, causing the shadow she cast to resemble the hunched _thing_ I knew was under her skin for a second. Or perhaps that was simply my imagination.

“Okay, what the hell, Lara?” I asked, a little perturbed. Dragging me off like that, taking me away from my investigation, heck even showing up here? Why had she done so? Why couldn’t she have just spoken up in the room? “So, you show up, you _feed on my friend_ , and then you drag me off into an unused conference room and lock the two of us in. Just what the hell are you doing here at the convention?”

“Venatori business, obviously.” Lara crossed her arms. I felt a bit of frustration coming off of her, and I frowned in response. “Why else would we need to discuss something in private?”

I blanched. Oh, right. I’d considered that at the start, but I’d thought that the room we’d been in had been private enough for that. Maybe I’d just thought that there was another reason. Still, I should have just given in on the more privacy. Lara had been doing this longer than me. Wait. Was Molly laughing at me? At the situation?

“I… you don’t want to know,” I said, looking down for half a second. It was too soon. It would always be too soon. The gaunt hideous creature in a woman’s marble skin stared at me from behind Lara’s visage.

“Oh?” Lara arched an eyebrow. “I suppose, if you wanted, we could indulge that line of thought.”

“No,” I said flatly. “I’m not food. Nor are any of my friends food. I know what you did, Lara.”

“And what, exactly, did I do?” Amusement drifted off her, but it was faint.

“… You fed off of my friend.” I glowered at Lara. I noted silver flecks in her eyes before looking away.

“Simply a taste,” Lara said with a smile, more silver coming to her eyes. “Nothing more. I hadn’t had the time.”

“A taste is too much,” I said. It wasn’t right. Drea had been close to a phobophage the previous night, and now Lara was feeding on her? I’d stop Lara here. “You have plenty of willing people to feed on.”

“Let’s get a few things straight, Faith.” Lara stood taller, her eyes gaining a more silver sheen. She glared down at me with those silver eyes, and I could feel her imposing mental fortitude bearing down on me. I looked to her nose to avoid a Soulgaze without looking like I was backing down. “It is not your place to decide whom I shall feed on and whom I shall not. It’s not your decision.”

“She’s my **friend** , and you fed on her,” I growled out. I felt the energy in the air. It would be all too easy to just do something to her. “Do you even know what happened here last night? What nearly happened to her?”

Annoyance flickered and flared in Lara, but none of it showed on her face which remained cool and passive.

“I don’t let anyone tell me who to feed upon, _child_ ,” Lara said, her skin taking a bit of marble-like hue. “Least of all a half-trained apprentice like yourself. I am your cell leader in the Venatori. Your orders come from me, and I expect you to follow them. You are _not_ Harry Dresden, and I suggest you stop acting like him before it gets you killed.”

“Harry’s got the rig—”

“Dresden has the power and experience to back up his insolence,” Lara said. There was only the faintest hint of anger, but amusement was on its way back. “You? You’re a seventeen-year-old girl with a bit of power and a lot less experience. You can’t afford to be as insolent as your mentor.”

“Gosh, I didn’t know you cared,” I said before I could even prevent it from slipping out of my mouth. Fact was, she had the right of it. Harry Dresden was one of the most powerful wizards that I’d heard of, with only the Senior Council of wizards having a power advantage over him. It still didn’t make it right, what she did to Drea, but what exactly was I going to do about it? How was I going to stop her if I wasn’t willing to go all the way? If she died, the White Court would erupt.

Luckily, the only thing I felt coming off her at that was amusement as her lips quirked into a smile. The silver in her eyes faded to grey. “You are one of the people I’m responsible for. I take such things seriously, Faith.”

That tracked with what I knew of Lara from my memories and interactions with her. Sure, she was a monster bent on subjugating humanity, but she was… not the worst possible one out there. Plus, she was a known quantity. As far as I could remember, she wanted to win through a cultural victory rather than conquest. That was fine with me.

“Alright, fine. I’m sorry.” I shook my head. I’d have to change tacks here. I couldn’t order Lara. I could ask, however. “Lara, please. Don’t feed on my friends. I’d prefer them to remain as… close to normal as they can.”

“I make no promises,” Lara said. However, her emotions hovered around what I guessed was her honesty threshold as she said her next statement. “But I will refrain during the business at hand.”

“So, why didn’t you just call Drew and let us know you were coming through him?” I asked. “He does have a cell phone.”

“One which is frequently powered off due to his proximity to two practitioners,” said Lara. Her amusement abated a bit, but it hovered just above her neutral state. “The business is too sensitive to be said over an unsecured line, and it’s definitely too sensitive for a voicemail.”

I nodded. That made a bit of sense. “So, what is it? The news, I mean.”

“Information. Our independent confirmation of the source has verified that it’s definitely here that the activity is going on. However, the time window we have for prevention is significantly small. If we don’t end it by midnight tonight, the Old One’s foothold will find purchase.”

Stars and stones. That… wasn’t good. I glanced down at the paper in my left hand. “Anything else?”

“This is the fourth time that this Old One has been nearly remembered. Previous cells of Venatori have stopped the foothold at the cost of their lives. Each time, it’s a similar activity. It co-opts any active supernatural beings to advance its agenda. In doing so, it gets them to try and spread its influence.”

“So… it acts like a tumor or a virus?”

“Seems like,” Lara said.

“Great. As if the phobophages weren’t enough on their own,” I said, thinking back to the previous night.

“Phobo—Empty night,” Lara swore, and frustration poured out of her like an overfilled cup. “So it’s found things…”

“How do we stop something like that?” I asked.

“Disrupting the ritual to bring it forth can help.” Lara’s eyes flicked toward the paper in my hand. “I don’t suppose that’s something helpful, is it?”

“I’m not sure. It’s something, much like the other drawings, but I’m not entirely sure why.” I held up the drawing in my left hand. “There’s a rune etched into this drawing, hidden by the scenery on it.”

“Rune magic?” Lara asked, and it occurred to me that she wasn’t a practitioner, just a vampire. “What does that have to do with our problem?”

“Maybe nothing,” I said. “Maybe everything. I didn’t recognize the rune in the drawing on the wall, but I did recognize the one on this sheet.”

I glanced down at the drawing again, now easily able to pick rune out from the background it was done into, much like the tattoos that Molly and I had contained runes within them. It caught the eye since I knew where to look.

“And, what does it do?” Lara asked.

“Individually, nothing. In an array?” I frowned, trying to think where the rest of the runes must have been. The setup bothered me. “The rune is one of… either binding or supplication.”

Lara cocked an eyebrow. “Which is it?”

I traced the rune along the drawing with my left index finger, feeling the energy pass into my glove-covered hand. Molly always was better at runes than me, but I still felt like I knew this one. It just didn’t make much sense. The energies and shape didn’t lie, though.

“Both. Somehow it’s both.” Someone was somehow simultaneously beseeching one thing while binding another.

What the heck was going on?


	21. Chapter Twenty-One

The normal way that a spell is cast involves shaping the caster’s will into a certain form for the effect and then applying enough power to generate the effect. No matter what, to cast a spell on your own requires a lot of willpower and a lot of focus. That’s the reason that props are used. They allow the caster to offload a lot of the necessary focus by having something that represents the target item or is associated with a mnemonic trigger in the caster’s mind. This is why incantations tend to be either in a language that the caster doesn’t speak often or nonsense words to begin with. Associating common words with magic is a good way to light your hair on fire.

Rune magic’s a bit different in this matter. Sure, “Magic Runes” are used in every single ritual and on every single focus to help channel energies through their representations, but that’s not exactly _rune magic_. No, what rune magic is, basically, is an attempt at standardizing spellcasting rather than having the spells unique to the caster. Each rune represents a concept which can have power channeled through it in order to produce an effect. When combined, these effects can do wondrous or horrible things depending on how the magic is directed. It was less versatile than normal casting, but rune magic took care of a lot of the guesswork if taught right.

It also made it simple enough to determine how a spell was being cast. Assuming that you could recognize the runes in question, determining the effects that would happen, and how to disrupt them, would be child’s play. Sadly, Molly was more skilled than I was at identifying runes, but it was still possible that she might need advice or references. On the plus side, the one who taught us about it was easy enough to contact. She still owed us a favor after what had happened in Toronto, too.

I flipped the paper in my hands over one more time, staring at the rune. It really made no sense, and without looking at another one of the runes to figure it out, I was just wasting time.

“It’s still active too,” I said to Lara. “It doesn’t quite have all the links up to the rest of the array, but there’s still a few, when last I checked.”

There had to be a better way to track down the linking runes than using the Sight. I didn’t think I’d be able to shield myself well enough if I was Seeing everyone that I came across. It wasn’t something I wanted to even attempt.

“Okay. You said binding and supplication.” Lara crossed her arms and looked at the with what felt like trepidation. “Are all of the runes on drawings like that one?”

“I don’t know. I know there’s a good number of drawings here,” I said. “I don’t know if all of them have runes or even if all of the runes are on drawings. Molly might be able to figure out more.”

“Then we should get to her,” Lara said, gesturing toward the door. “After you.”

I nodded, and crossed the room toward the door. I didn’t quite like having Lara at my back, but if the vampire had wanted to kill me for whatever reason, she wouldn’t do it from behind, and definitely not while I was useful to her.

I opened the door and stepped through it into the hallway. I paused as the proximity of the increased crowd increased the volume of the cacophony of emotion and adjusted my shields to compensate for that. It really didn’t take that long to make the adjustments, barely a few seconds.

Of course, that was long enough for me to be bumped into by Darby freaking Crane. He had to have been in a hurry as the bump was enough to throw me off balance. Not for the first time I wished that I carried a staff as I fell to the ground. Thankfully, my childhood gymnastics paid off, and I wasn’t hurt from the fall. I did, however, end up flat on my butt in front of a famous movie director and his sinfully ugly employee.

“Why don’t you watch where you’re standing, you—oh hello…” And there his emotions blew! Crane’s indignant anger winked out when he noticed me lying there. Something akin to hunger or desire replaced it as he held out an ungloved hand. “Here, let me help you up.”

“Mister Crane,” frog-man spoke up. “We do have someplace to be.”

“Nonsense, Glau,” Crane smiled down at me, and I instinctively chose to focus my attention on his nose rather than looking in his eyes. “I can always spare some time to help a girl in need.”

I grabbed his hand with my gloved one and let him help me to my feet. “Thanks.”

“It really was no trouble,” Crane said, as he stepped in closer to apparently brush me off, but I lightly blocked his hands from touching me with my arms.

“I can handle that myself, Mister Crane,” I said. “No need to get your hands dirty.”

“Ah, but I ruffled your costume,” Crane said, and his eyes shifted color toward a grayish tint. I shivered as his desire increased. “I really don’t mind.”

“I can handle it,” I insisted, backing away from the director. I did not want to give him the chance to do whatever he wanted. He wouldn’t be able to feed off me if I didn’t let him touch my skin directly, and the only parts of me exposed were my face and... some awkward areas to touch in public. Still, I didn’t want him getting handsy.

“Wait, I remember you… Molly, was it? No… were you the blonde? Faith?” Darby smiled warmly at me and I felt my heart give a flutter. Traitor. I knew what he was.

“Faith, yes.”

“You have a lovely costume, Faith. It makes you look radiant.” Okay. I was definitely not blushing at the probably White Court vampire’s words. “You said last night that you were staff, correct?

“Yes, that’s true, but—”

“So, that means that you can be my escort to my panel. I can give you the autograph you wanted, and then maybe we can sit down and talk about what scares you,” Crane said, his smile growing. Were those butterflies in my stomach? I needed to focus. This guy… his hunger, his desire… they were mixed. It was odd though. Almost familiar. Like he was desiring more than food or _me_. Something else.

Glau chose to speak up then. “Sir, I’m not sure that’s the best idea at the moment.”

“Nonsense, Glau.” Crane waved off his toady, a frown briefly playing on his face. It didn’t echo in his feelings at all. No, it was like some sort of giddy anticipation. It reminded me of something. Rosie, before the potion. Nelson too. They both felt this way. Was this the way addiction felt? What was Crane addicted to? “Come on, Faith. You can lead me there… or somewhere perhaps a bit more private.”

“There’s a problem with that,” said a sultry voice in an all too smug tone. “Miss Carpenter is my escort, Mad.”

Well, that confirmed that theory, even if it didn’t fully negate the fact that Darby Crane was one of the more attractive men that I’d seen.

“L-Lara,” Crane said, turning toward her. “What are you doing—I mean, it’s good to see you. How have you been?”

I chose that moment to back away further. When looking at the two of them, I could see the familial resemblance, but I knew that Lara only had one living brother, Thomas. That meant that Crane had to be a cousin or something similar.

“Oh, I’ve been quite well,” Lara said. Her feelings seemed to fluctuate between annoyance and amusement. “Miss Carpenter and I were having a wonderful time together as she showed me the venue.”

“I didn’t realize, I mean…” Crane’s hunger and desire hadn’t abated, but there was a bit of fear in him. Of Lara, no doubt. He knew that she was a power in the White Court, and he didn’t feel it was the right time for him to act. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I’m one of the guests. Last minute, you see.” Lara smiled. “I was one of the victims of the Reaper. I’m going to be speaking about that at one of the panels this morning. What are _you_ doing here, Mad?”

“Mister Crane,” Glau said, glancing between him and Lara. Something about him made my skin itch. “We should get going. You do have that panel.”

“Oh, a _panel_ ,” Lara said. I wished I knew where she was going with this, but it was interesting to watch. “Looks like we’re here for the same reasons.”

“I am a director,” Crane said, a haughty tone entering his voice. His eyes flicked to me, and damn those butterflies. Stupid sexy vampires, the both of them. “Nothing so plebeian as a victim.”

“I see. So, you made some of these movies then. With the goal to terrify.”

“He’s actually pretty good at it,” I said, cutting in. “ _Harvest_ is one of the scariest and most fun movies I remember watching as a kid. The Scarecrow still scares me.”

“Thank you, Faith. Like I said before, always lovely to meet a fan.” Crane sent a winning smile my way, and I swear I could see his teeth sparkle. “The screams that they make are always so delicious.”

And… there was the addictive desire again. It was like Crane was a junkie. Something bugged me about this. You’d think that people would be trying to get a photo of a famous porn star talking to a horror director or something, but nobody was nearby.

“Delicious, Mad?” Lara cocked an eyebrow. “Have you been eating what you shouldn’t?”

“Coz, you have no idea what you’re missing…” Crane’s smile matched his nickname. “It’s so sweet… and after last night…”

“Mad, you need help,” Lara said simply. “Leave the girl and her twin alone. They’re mine. Whatever scheme you are employing, it doesn’t involve them. Understand?”

“Hypocrite,” Crane muttered, yet I heard it clearly. Wait. I felt some sort of energy in the hall.

My eyes flicked to Glau. The amphibious man was muttering under his breath and touching something with his right hand. I lightly splayed out my left, and I extended my senses. Whatever Glau was doing was reminiscent of a veil. It explained why nobody was paying attention to the fact that Darby Crane was talking to a porn star in the hallway. Maybe it also explained why Crane didn’t have that many scandals to his name, if he had this guy backing him up. Especially with what his feeding habits must have been like.

“Come on, Faith. We’re done here.” Lara grabbed my arm lightly and we started down the hall. I winced slightly at the anger I felt coming from Crane’s direction, and I looked back toward him. Crane had turned toward Glau, and he’d started to berate him for one reason or another. I looked questioningly at the vampire tugging on my arm. “Madrigal Raith, my cousin, has less respect for mortals than I do.”

“And he feeds on fear,” I said, frowning. Could he have been the source of the other phobophages? Glau clearly had magic, but something about that rang wrong. Besides, I needed to focus on the Venatori issue. “But if he’s your cousin, shouldn’t he feed on lust?”

“Technically, we can feed on any number of emotions, but each family has one that they prefer,” Lara said. “And to go against that preference is… wrong. Malvora and Skavis are _distasteful_ , at best, complete monsters at worst. Mad prefers the company of the former to his own family. You should stay away from him. Your sister as well.”

“By that logic, shouldn’t we stay away from you?” I asked.

“I guarantee you’d enjoy my feeding far more than you’d enjoy his,” Lara said in reply. “Still, business before pleasure. I have a panel to prepare for, and you, your sister and your friend need to find what the source is, before the day’s end.”

“Right,” I said, trying not to think about the possible ways that Lara could make a feeding enjoyable. Why was it that I was consistently surrounded by attractive supernatural beings? Never mind, it didn’t matter. Lara and I would need to separate when we got to the panel room, and Molly would need to make her call.

I just hoped that Drew and I would have some luck, and that we wouldn’t be too late to stop this.

Timing was everything, right?

  



	22. Chapter Twenty-Two

After dropping Lara off at the panel room and giving the drawing to Molly, she and I went our separate ways. She went to use one of the phones at the hotel, and I went to find my b—to find Drew. The two of us would need to investigate other avenues while Molly spoke to our teacher. Did all of the drawings have runes on them? Were they all linked into whatever runic array there was? Honestly, the only way to tell would be to look, and I had an idea of where to start once I found him.

I spotted Drew standing just outside the Dealers’ Room. He looked like he’d been a bit busy; his good arm had ink stains on it that probably wouldn’t be noticeable to most people. The sleeve covering his prosthetic was pristine though, and as I approached, he smiled at me. He also deliberately pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and turned it off just before I got within twenty feet of him.

“Really?” I asked.

“Not taking any chances today, Fai,” Drew said. “That printer’s a lost cause. Which is funny because it was supposedly brand new.”

I raised my hands in defense. “I swear, I hadn’t gone near the thing.” I still remembered what had happened in the last IT class I’d attended. I’m still not sure how I managed to get every single computer in there to catch on fire, but it happened. “And I’m about ninety-five percent certain that Molly didn’t either.”

“Dresden?”

“He hasn’t been here today, and it was on the fritz when he got here last night,” I said. Slight amusement echoed out from Drew, and I smiled. “So, we’re going to have to stick with the hand-written this time, then?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Pity, that. Nobody has to use their actual name. Next year, we’re printing the pre-purchased badges ahead of time.”

I nodded. “Assuming there is a next year. Come with me.”

Drew followed my lead as the two of us made our way down the hallway. The crowd had really started to pick up; Fridays did tend to be one of the more popular days at conventions. People took off work so that they could show up and enjoy the various events, and SplatterCon!!! was no exception. Honestly, given the events of the previous evening, the horror convention might have even become more popular today.

Drew and I weaved through the crowd, on our way to our destination. My b—no, he was my friend—grabbed onto my shoulder about halfway into the trip.

“Where we going?” Drew looked into my eyes for a second, but I glanced toward his lips before anything could happen. His emotions were a mess, but the primary one I felt was anxiety. He was worried about something… me?

“Statue room,” I said, glancing down the hall. “I need to check something.”

“Again, with that damn statue,” Drew said, annoyance peaking in him and his voice. “It’s a good-looking statue; you did good work on it. Why, exactly, are we checking it over, _again_?”

“I nearly saw something last night,” I said. “Before Jason appeared, and I _did_ see something this morning. Plus, we don’t actually have a whole lot of time to get this done.”

“Fai, what do you mean by saw something?” Drew rubbed his prosthetic lightly, and I winced. No, I didn’t need to dwell on that.

“Runes. At least two of the drawings hanging around here have active runes on them.” I lowered my voice as much as I could while still being heard over the surrounding crowd and moved closer to Drew. “I think it might have something to do with what Lara wants us here for. We’ve only got until the end of the day to figure it out.”

Drew winced. The hand of his prosthetic opened and closed in rapid succession, a tic he’d developed to release stress. “She’s here, isn’t she?”

“The local guest,” I said with a shrug. “We spoke before I went to look for you and after I found the drawing.”

“So, the plan here is, what? Go in, look around the statue and check for more runes?”

“Something like that,” I said, starting to walk again. “Something didn’t want us looking there last night. It won’t have an easier time during the day.”

Drew nodded. “So, assuming we find them, then what?”

“Take the thing it’s on, and then…” I shrugged. “I haven’t thought that far ahead, honestly.”

Drew snorted, and I lowered my head with a slight blush of embarrassment. It wasn’t like I usually acted without a plan. I made plans, honest. They just usually involved some measure of proper foreknowledge. I was about eighty percent certain that whatever we were dealing with right now hadn’t happened in what I remembered of the original way the convention went. Then again, I really couldn’t recall much about the convention from my memories. I couldn’t even really be certain it actually had happened then. Remembering specifics of something from twenty or so years ago was hard enough as a seventeen year old, but given what my dream showed… Never mind.

I shook my head as we made our way closer to the statue room. The room itself wasn’t scheduled to be used until that afternoon. The room was supposed to be open so people could look at the statue, but I didn’t think people would really want to stay that long. Sure, there might have been one or two people hanging about, but I doubted that anyone would really hang out alone in there all day. I really hoped that I was right on that fact. It would have been awkward to walk in on some couple taking advantage of the privacy and doing something illicit. No matter how the presence of two White Court vampires had gotten to me, walking in on any sort of couple doing… Okay, maybe they’d gotten to me more than I thought.

“You okay, Fai?” Drew asked, stopping only about thirty feet from our destination. A small spike of worry came from him.

“Fine, I’m fine…” I smiled at him before glancing toward the room. Most of the foot traffic from the convention attendees seemed to just pass by it. Something seemed off about that, as if something perhaps was keeping them from going in the room, so much so that they even seemed to give the door a bit of a wide berth. The door wasn’t as open as it should have been, but that didn’t explain the distance people stood from it as they passed. “Let’s head on in.”

Drew nodded, and the two of us walked toward the entryway just as the door opened fully. Immediately, Drew and I stopped, moving out the way of the person inside. He was familiar, the sleazy Asian guy who’d let Molly and I know where Drea was. The grin he had on his face, combined with what I felt from him had me shuddering again. Even with being worked up by Lara and her douchebag director cousin, I still didn’t like the guy.

“Oh, hello again, Faith.” Guy didn’t even look to Drew or acknowledge his presence. “Fancy meeting the artist herself here. Come to gaze upon your work? Or do you just want a little private time with dark and handsome?”

Oh. Maybe he did acknowledge Drew. I wished I could remember his name so I could tell him off properly. Damn it. Of course, Drew could take care of himself. Mostly.

“Either or is good with me,” Drew said, stepping forward and wrapping an arm around me. It was sweet of him to do so, and that he was using his good arm wasn’t lost on me either. “You can leave now.”

The guy sniffed, and then leered at me a little. Creep. “I’m done in there anyway. Have to do some errands for the boss lady. You know how it is.”

“Go then,” I said, gesturing with a gloved hand. Drew and I sidled out of his way and he walked down the hall. I shook my head. “Man, I really don’t like that guy.”

“You’re not the only one,” Drew said, and I nodded, leaning back on the arm he’d wrapped around me. This felt familiar, nice. “Shall we?”

The two of us entered the statue room like that, leaving the door open behind us. I’m not sure what we expected to find when we got in there, but I’m certain that it wasn’t Sandra Marling smoothing out her dark blue silken skirt as she stood in front of the statue. Her hair was ruffled slightly, and her red SplatterCon!!! T-shirt was ruffled, more than the one she wore yesterday.

She blinked when we came in, seeming to notice that she wasn’t alone anymore. I felt a bit of confusion rise in her before a slightly delayed bit of embarrassment blossomed within her, and her cheeks started to color in a blush. Wait… she hadn’t been… with _that guy_? While I wasn’t really one to judge on the age difference, it was more the fact that the sleaze just irked me.

“Faith, Andrew? What are you doing here?” Sandy asked. “Shouldn’t you be helping Andrea out?”

“That setup’s finished, and I wanted to make sure this room was ready for the afternoon,” I said. “What about you?”

“Oh, I was just…” Sandy shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”

Nobody said anything for a little bit. I didn’t want to press, and Sandy didn’t want to talk about it. Still, the problem was it was right there. Standing there with us, making the silence even more awkward. The silence grew uncomfortably long, but I didn’t dare break it.

“So,” Drew said, his deep voice dispelling the quiet. “I’d been meaning to ask, Sandy. Why isn’t this in the dealers’ room?”

“Why isn’t what in the dealer’s room?” Sandy answered, clearly grasping onto the topic to avoid the other one. Her embarrassment began to recede.

“The statue,” Drew said. “Faith did an awesome job on it, as I’m sure you’ll agree. Shouldn’t it have been the centerpiece in the dealers’ room? Or just outside it?”

“You know, I’d thought about that, actually.” Sandy smiled. “But given its nature, it’s best where it can project its shadows. We’ll be promoting it a bit tonight though.”

“Ah,” Drew said with a smile that was none too strained. “Is that wise? Given what happened?”

“If we shut down the convention now, SplatterCon!!! is done. No more future years, no more anything. We’ve put in a lot of hard work into this, Andrew.” Sandy sighed. “We can’t let the events of last night ruin that.”

“She’s right, Drew.” I lightly placed a hand on his shoulder. “We worked too hard on this convention to let anyone or anything ruin it.”

“Suppose so,” Drew said.

“Right. Don’t dawdle here too long, you two,” Sandy said with a smile. “I’ll be by registration if you need me.”

Sandy made her way out of the statue room, and she shut the door completely behind her. I wasn’t entirely sure what she thought the two of us were planning on doing together. Okay, that was a lie. I was pretty sure I knew what she thought we were planning, but we were good Catholics. Sort of. Still, I wouldn’t have been entirely opposed to the idea if the convention were just a normal convention without any supernatural crap.

“So, that wasn’t awkward at all,” I commented with a clap of my hands, slipping reluctantly out of Drew’s hold.

Drew looked to me, and then the statue. “Yeah. So, what are we looking for?”

I looked over my statue, trying to remember where I was the previous night when Jason appeared. I followed the circle around, looking through my statue at the wall. There. Found it. I stood on the edge of the iron circle, and I fished out my pentacle and crucifix.

“Fai?” Drew asked. He didn’t sound too worried, so I focused instead on what I was doing.

I channeled a bit of my will into my pendants, and they began to emit a blue light that I directed toward my statue. Shadows extended from my statue onto the wall, and I passed the pendants across my field of view. Something bugged me here.

“What are you looking for?” Drew asked again, and this time I smiled at him.

“That.” I moved the pendant two inches to the right, and then I pointed. On the wall was a shadow that I hadn’t designed, one reaching up like a grasping hand toward the drawing that hung on the wall. The shadow had holes in it, and each hole was shaped in the form of a different rune, as if it were something to be filled.

Drew walked to the wall and reached up to pull down the drawing, only to pull his hand back practically immediately. “Gah! It shocked me.”

“What?” I reached out with my senses, and… oh, wow. That was… strong. Whatever it was, it wasn’t the drawing itself that was causing the issue. No, this drawing, like the other two I’d seen, had a rune embedded within it. Actually, it had three. Without help, I wouldn’t be able to identify them, but they couldn’t remain there. “It’s active.”

“Okay, so what then?’ Drew asked and my eyes flicked to his prosthetic. He let out a heavy sigh. “Right. If this hurts, I’m blaming you.”

“There’s plenty of blame to go around,” I said, and I gestured lightly toward the paper. Drew reached up with his prosthetic and grabbed the drawing with his metallic hand. A shiver went through me as I saw, standing next to Drew, what looked like a small puppet dressed in a tuxedo with a bright red bowtie. Its “skin” was pure white, and its dark hair framed a bald head marked with red spirals. I say looked like because it wasn’t there a second ago.

Its mouth opened, and a voice came out that was far deeper than I expected. “Tell me. Would you like to play a game?”

Hell’s bells.


	23. Chapter Twenty-Three

I hadn’t seen whatever movie the puppet was from, nor did I really plan to. I was a bit incredulous that the phobophage, or the phobophage-like thing in front of us chose to use that as its form of attack. It barely came up to Drew’s shins, for crying out loud. Still, we couldn’t afford to underestimate it. That way led to madness, which led to shins being bitten off. I was about to yell to have Drew move when—

“Sure, let’s play a game. How about football?” Drew asked, drawing back his foot and kicking the puppet in the chest. It rocketed off the ground and into a nearby wall with a thud, but I heard no accompanying splash. Instead, another thump happened as the puppet hit the ground, and the patter of wooden feet echoed across the floor.

As the puppet made its way across the room, I raised my right hand and intentionally gripped down my ring and middle finger. Tracing out a circle in the air, I crossed the two extended fingers and muttered a nonsense word under my breath, like I was exhaling.

An invisible wave of force slammed into the puppet, blasting it off its feet once more and into another wall.

“We can’t let it have time to do anything,” I said. Why hadn’t the puppet returned to ectoplasm yet? Surely between both Drew and I, we’d done enough damage to disrupt whatever was holding it together. And it was _daytime_. Magic affecting the spiritual world didn’t like dealing with sunlight. Assuming the phobophages, like the construct the previous night, were creatures of the Nevernever, the sun would weaken them, assuming it didn’t destroy their ties to the material plane outright.

That the puppet was lasting as long as it was made little sense. Drew’s kick was strong, and the force spell I’d cast, while nowhere near as potent as Harry’s would have been, should have been enough to disrupt a weakened version of either thing from the previous night.

The puppet scrambled along the floor toward Drew, pulling a knife from somewhere within its sleeves, sized somehow appropriately for its body. It let out a low chuckle as it approached. “The game is… you die!”

“Somehow, I don’t think that’s how you work,” I said, blasting another wave of force at the puppet before it could reach Drew. The knife barely wavered, but it flew back another few steps, but it scrambled again. I frowned. “Drew, the circle!”

When the puppet came within range, Drew ducked down and backhanded it with his prosthetic, making sure the metal contacted it. It skidded across the floor, steam flaring up from where Drew struck it. Good. It _was_ of the Nevernever, even if I didn’t know precisely what it was. That meant this could work.

I raised my right hand, and the circle on the back of my glove started glowing an iridescent green. “ _Fukukaze_!”

Tendrils of air snaked themselves around the puppet, and I squeezed my hand, pulling back. The wind pulled taut and dragged the puppet further through the air into the metal circle demarking the best viewing area around the statue.

Drew rubbed his right hand on his prosthetic, cutting open a finger which he used to drip blood on the edge of the circle. Instantaneously my spell was cut off as the circle snapped shut. While Drew wasn’t a practitioner himself, he knew enough about magic to be able to power a circle for protection, or, in this case, offense. The puppet would be trapped inside, and maybe we’d be able to find a way to question it.

Well, that’d been the thought anyway. The moment the puppet struck the ground inside the circle it converted into ectoplasm, the clear-ish goo that the Nevernever is made of.

“Well.” Drew crossed his arms carefully, making sure to keep some pressure on his bleeding finger. “I’ve never seen _that_ reaction before.”

“Yeah,” I said, frowning. It should have been stuck inside the circle, with the statue, assuming it was a creature of the Nevernever. The ectoplasm indicated that it was something _from_ the Nevernever, but that it had dissipated like that meant it hadn’t had a mind of its own. It was acting due to external will, meaning it wasn’t a phobophage at all. I didn’t know if a phobophage had created it, but I severely doubted that fact. “Something didn’t want you grabbing that drawing.”

Drew nodded, bringing it over to me. He still held the piece of paper with his prosthetic, and despite the movement he’d made to hit the puppet, it remained unwrinkled. “So, any idea why? Other than it being active, I mean.”

“Must be something key to the process. _You_ felt the energy in it,” I said as I extended my senses toward the paper. Oh, yeah. That was something special alright. Yet somehow, two feet away from where I was, I sensed nothing. Whoever had done these runes had disguised them well. The magic didn’t radiate from them at all.

I traced over the drawing with my eyes and other senses. Several lines made in the drawing stuck out more than others, almost glowing before me, but the paper itself was infused with the energy, giving the array its power. I wasn’t entirely sure, but it almost felt like this was a linchpin. Unfortunately, without knowing more about the ritual, I didn’t dare disrupt it yet.

I turned my gaze back to Drew, drawing back my senses. The minor enchantments on his prosthetic didn’t need refreshing, not yet. For a split-second I thought I saw something else, but on a second glance, it wasn’t there. No, Drew was fine. A bit on the worried side, but fine nonetheless. Of course, the worry wasn’t just about the situation.

“Faith, what does it mean?”

I shrugged. “Molly’s got the better memory for runes. We’ll have to show her.”

“I suppose,” Drew said, breathing out a sigh.

The two of us gave another look around the room, and I reached out with my senses. Nothing. No more runes in the room, and there were no more creatures like the puppet. It was just the two of us.

Alone. What I wouldn’t have given to have this happen a year and a half ago.

“We’re clear,” I said, turning to Drew. “I think the room’s probably safe to let people come in properly now. I’ll see if I can disrupt whatever it was that was directing them around it.”

Drew nodded as I went over to the door. I hadn’t felt any sort of ward as I’d come in, but that didn’t mean that there was nothing there. When we’d been on the way inside, I hadn’t been looking for it, but now that I was, there was a subtle ward there, much like the one that Glau had used earlier. It wasn’t that hard to unravel. I just gave a couple of mental tugs, and the ward collapsed into nothing.

“Done?” Drew asked, his feelings fluctuating from concern to care. He still cared about me, I knew. We’d remained friends despite what had happened, even if we still hadn’t talked about it. Neither one of us was really ready for that.

“Yeah.”

“To Molly then?” Drew asked, and I responded with a nod. He held the door open for me, and the two of us made our way down the convention halls. The moment we stepped outside the door, people seemed to notice the room again, and I felt some curious attendees making their moves toward the room already.

The phone that Molly had gone to use was a landline in the small office area reserved for the convention. It was probably about the size of the study that Daddy used for his work at home, and it had a powered-off computer in the corner, a couple benches, some clutter with some excess horror props that someone had likely intended on using later, and a desk. Sitting in an office chair near the desk, holding a corded old-style dial phone to her ear was my sister.

Molly held up one finger as we walked in. “Mm… Thanks. That’s a big help. No, sorry, you really don’t want to know. Okay. Bye.”

The moment she hung up the phone, I smiled. “Good talk?”

“She narrowed it down to a few things for us, but…” Molly shrugged. “Close the door?”

“Got it,” Drew said, closing the door behind us. “So, _not_ a Venatori member then.”

“Not as such, no,” Molly said. “She helped us keep up our training while we were away, but like Harry, I don’t think she knows anything about the Venatori.”

“Nor should she,” I said. “Given her position. I’m not sure she’d have taught us if she knew.”

“Depends on her mood, I suppose.” Molly shrugged. “Still, she managed to help us out some. You had the right idea on that rune, Fai. This is a dual-purpose ritual. It’s probably being used to bring forth whatever we’re here to stop.”

Drew placed the rune we found in the statue room down on the table, and Molly winced. “Something didn’t want us finding this one.”

“Didn’t try that hard, but it’s daytime,” I said. “Either that or we’re walking into some crazy trap right now.”

Molly shook her head. “Well, if it’s based on what the Reaper was, they couldn’t possibly be working as well in the daylight.” Molly took a closer look at the drawing, and she lightly traced her fingers on the air above it. My sister muttered some words under her breath, and I could feel her shaping a spellform, an illusion to hide the rest of the drawing, leaving only the rune remaining. Honestly, it didn’t look like much: almost a stylized P merged with a lowercase d and r. Of course, there were cross-hatch lines through each bit and serifs on the ends of each leg.

“Okay, that’s weird,” Drew said. “That was buried in that drawing?”

“Good artists can hide any number of things in their drawings,” Molly said. “Illusions aren’t just magical, you know.”

I nodded, agreeing with my sister. “Makes sense. Unless you know what to look for, or have any sort of magical senses, you can’t find it. What’s it mean, Moll?”

“I’m… actually not sure. It’s like this is two runes layered over one another, making it one. One part, I recognize completely. The other… It’s new. The two combined… with the new one above the other… it means something.”

“And the one you recognize?”

“Fear-drinker.”

“That’s one rune?” Drew asked. “Seems like it’d be two.”

I shrugged. “Runes are weird like that. Sometimes they work in aggregate, changing the meaning of one rune based on the—”

“—position of another,” Molly said. “Fear and Drinker are usually separate, sure, but when these two bits are overlain on each other, it means they’re one rune. Now, this second rune up top is normally separate, but it’s also aggregating itself… in a different fashion.”

“So… the ritual is binding the fear-drinkers, the phobophages then. I wonder why…” I frowned.

“Doesn’t matter. We should be able to stop it by destroying that rune,” Molly said. “Fai, do the honors?”

“Drew, I’m going to need it in an empty trashcan.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Drew said, grabbing the paper with his prosthetic and tossing it into the metal trashcan beneath the desk. Molly moved the bin out, and I walked over to it.

While I wasn’t exactly as much of a pyro as Harry, I did enjoy some of the simpler things in life. I extended my right hand, splaying my fingers out. The circle on the back of my gloves took on a reddish glow as my spell formed. “ _Infernius._ ”

A small, pinpoint ball of flame appeared above my hand, and, moving my hand like I was dumping it, I willed the ball into the trashcan, where it ignited the drawing. Fire is the great cleanser, and as the flames ate through the paper, the enchantments woven into it burned off. The rune burned off, and so did its link to every other rune in the facility.

Molly threw the other drawing into the can as well, and we waited until the fire had gone completely out before smiling. We’d managed to do our job.

“That should be it now, I think.” I glanced to the analog clock on the wall. “We need to get to lunch. The others are waiting for us.”

Molly nodded. “Yeah. We do owe Rosie, Drea and Ken an explanation. The truth?”

“I think they can handle it.” I smiled at my male friend. “Drew managed to.”

“Of a sort of management,” Drew said, looking at the trash can. Worry spiked in him followed by contemplation. “You really think it’s done?”

“Those runes were pretty linchpin,” Molly said. “The ritual should be disrupted. If we find any more runes, we can tear them up and burn them too.”

“Yeah, she’s right,” I said, trying to reassure our friend. “Should be disrupted.” I wasn’t sure I was entirely sincere. As the three of us left the office, a cold feeling settled in my gut. While we’d destroyed the runes, it had been entirely too easy. I liked easy, but…

I just couldn’t help but wonder how the day would go downhill.


	24. Chapter Twenty-Four

The three of us met up with Ken, Rosie, and Drea at the staff lunchroom. Sure, the food provided wasn’t anything fancy, but it was tasty enough and not too expensive, unlike the food they served at the concessions stands that were set up in the hotel lobby. Plus, it was a lot more private.

I noted that Rosie’d had a glass of her tea set in front of her, along with some pinwheel sandwiches from the lunch setup when I sat down with my plate next to her. I’d grabbed some pinwheels of my own along with some chips and a cookie. After how today had been so far, I felt that I needed the sweets to help pick me up. Molly sat across from me, and Drew took up my other side. Ken and Drea joined us soon afterward, taking seats on either side of Molly, Ken across from Rosie and Drea across from Drew.

“So, no Lara Romany?” I asked, looking to Drea.

“She couldn’t make it,” Drea said. “She said something about talking with her agent about some sort of records or something, but she wasn’t entirely clear.”

I nodded. That made a bit of sense. Lara was probably calling Ivy, the Archive, to check on something relating to this. Did destroying those runes really cause the ritual to stop, or would we have to get some more destroyed before the day was through?

“Probably a good thing,” Molly said. “Fraternizing with the staff has to be a bit of a taboo for conventions.”

Drea shook her head. “Not really, but usually it doesn’t happen with the actors and common staff.”

“You sure looked like you were having fun with her,” Rosie said before taking a sip of her tea. “Planning something illicit?”

“I wish,” Drea said wistfully. “You know who Lara Romany is, right?”

“Porn star,” Ken said. “She’s a decent enough one too, and it looked like they were having a lot more fun on that set than they typically do on most.”

Rosie shook her head, her lips twitching upward in a smile. “Can’t take you anywhere.”

“You know I love only you, Ro.” Ken smiled winningly at his girlfriend. “Which is why you trust me around so many of your friends.”

Rosie made a move under the table, and Ken let out a very manly yelp. The rest of us let out a peal of laughter at the couple’s antics. It was a bit nice just to see the two of them.

“Where’s Nelson?” Drea asked, looking to Molly. “He not joining us for lunch?”

Molly shrugged. “He’s… Well, he was doing some security rounds, last I checked. Or he says he’s doing so anyway. I think he’s hiding out in a couple of theater rooms, trying to lay low after what happened yesterday.”

“What _did_ happen, Molly?” Drea asked.

“Nelson doesn’t really know,” Molly said, and I felt her frustration. I sent some reassurance my sister’s way, and she offered me a smile.

I closed my eyes to think. Given Pell’s condition, it was obvious that someone or something had beaten him with some sort of weapon. “What movie was playing at that time yesterday? At Pell’s theater?”

“I’m not sure,” Drea said, the trepidation she felt about the subject entering her voice, and she reached into her purse, pulling out a sheet of paper. “Was around three, right? Looks like it was _Hammerhands_.”

“Then, given what happened to us,” I said, pausing for effect. “I’d say that odds are good that Pell got beat up by something that looked a lot like Hammerhands.”

“How can that be possible?” Rosie asked. “Nobody else was there. Just the two of them.”

“You were there last night,” I said, shuddering at the memory. “Probably something like that. And a similar way for it to leave.”

Fear spiked within our friends for a second, along with a bit of confusion that set in. I doubted they wanted to remember last night. Though none of them had gotten physically hurt, their souls had to have been affected by the fear that permeated the room. Maybe they hadn’t been torn to shreds, Drea’s certainly hadn’t been, but I wasn’t planning on looking further to find out.

“It…” Drea shook her head, clearly trying to reassure herself. “No, that’s crazy. It couldn’t have been.”

“You thought so too?” Ken asked, and I felt the dread settling onto him. “That was too good, too real to just be a costume.”

“It had to have been one though, right?” Rosie looked to me. Hope and fear colored her words and drenched her expression. “You got closer than any of us, Faith. You were fighting that guy. The Reaper.”

I breathed out a sigh and locked eyes with my sister. This wasn’t going to be an easy thing. Nobody really wanted to believe the first time, especially after something like the previous night.

_Well, we did promise._ Molly glanced over to Drew, offering him a small smile.  _I’ll back you up. Drew probably will too._

“It wasn’t just some guy in a costume,” I said quietly, letting my sister feel my appreciation. “The Reaper was real. Well, sort of.”

“That’s not funny, Faith. People _died_.” Ken crossed his arms. He wasn’t exactly angry. No, that was definitely a form of defiance against his fear. “Ro, we shouldn’t—”

“He was _real_.” I curled my pinky and ring finger up and touched the table. “He wasn’t just a person in a costume. You all felt it. You could feel how he was, what he was doing. He was playing with us, trying to cause as much fear as possible. Killing methodically, slowly. I stood up to him, and he focused on me to break everyone.”

Ken tried to speak up again, using his attempt at anger as a shield. “That doesn’t m—”

“There are things out there, that feed on the innocent. That kill without apparent reason. Monsters in the dark.” I ran my index and middle finger on the table, tracing out the start of a pattern, repeating it. “Both human and inhuman. The Reaper was a part of the latter category.”

Drea blinked incredulously next to me. “That’s crazy.” She wasn’t sure what to believe, I could feel it. The feeling echoed in Rosie and Ken.

“How else do you want to explain it?” Molly asked, taking her cue. “Trick of the light? Guy in a costume? Maybe he just ran away after getting shot at.”

“Maybe he was high on something, like PCP,” Drew said, holding up his good hand. “Or maybe it was bath salts, or something like that Three-Eye drug from a few years back. It’s perfectly reasonable. Up until the point where you realize it’s all bullshit.”

I nodded. “Magic is real. Monsters are real, and they are among us.”

“What, you mean like tricks?” Rosie asked. “Street Magic, David Blaine type stuff?”

Molly and I snorted in unison. “No, sorry Rosie. Not like that. Though what he does  _is_ impressive, that’s not exactly what we do.”

“Okay, now that’s creepy,” Ken said, a genuine shudder going through his body. “But that’s not magic. That’s just you guys being… well, you.”

We cocked our heads, and then I shook mine. “Well, not really, but it’s not exactly what I was talking about.”

“So what is?” Drea asked. “How can we believe you about magic?”

My hand continued its tracing and my sister’s did the same, opposite my own. Simultaneously we laid our hands flat on the table and said, “ _Miragin._ ”

A fractal illusion spiraled out from each of our hands, blues, greens, reds, infinitely repeating in on themselves, wrapping up and down our plates and meeting in the middle of the table. The illusion climbed upward, about six inches above the plates, letting an intentional discontinuity in the fractal imagery propagate to form a three-dimensional scale model of the Chicago skyline.

Our friends flinched back, surprise passing through them, save for Drew, of course. He might not have expected this specifically, but he expected that Molly and I would show something off.

“This is magic,” I said. “A simple illusion mostly, but—”

“—we can do more than that. This is safe,” Molly said, and the two of us lifted our hands. The illusion stayed contained between the two of us, and with each of us flanked by others, it was unlikely that anyone just coming in would see it. “We’ve been training—”

“—since we were fourteen in this.” I spread out my fingers, and the skyline shifted, as if a camera were panning down, passing down the sides of buildings to reveal a single tree as the new focus, fractal patterns forming around the negative space. “What I was doing last night, how I was fighting the Reaper—”

“—was also magic.” Molly smiled.

Our friends remained speechless for about a minute as we maintained the illusion. A bird flew through the fractal pattern, landing on the tree. This really didn’t take a whole lot of effort with the two of us controlling it. Drew watched our friends’ reactions alongside us, but he couldn’t feel how they were, what they felt. Molly and I did. Luckily, none of them seemed especially scared of  _us_ , but they were skeptical of what they saw.

“Okay, so you have some sort of hologram projector or something.” Ken reached forward to poke at the illusion, finding his fingers passing through it. He got a self-satisfied look on his face as he did so, up until Molly kicked him, anyway, causing him to yelp. “That was uncalled for!”

“You ever see Fai or I on any piece of technology?” Molly asked, annoyance tinging her voice. “Neither of us own a cell phone, nor do we use computers.”

“Just thought that meant you were Luddites,” Ken said.

I slapped my forehead with my free hand. Did he even know what that meant?

“Ken, sweetie,” Rosie said. “If they were Luddites, why would they have a hologram projector?”

“Besides, does one that can do something this detailed even exist?” Drea asked, acceptance washing over her, much like Rosie. “Okay, magic is real, and this is kind of neat. What does that mean about what’s going on?”

“It means that you know, for one,” Drew said.

“As promised,” I said. “It also means that you can know how to better stay safe from supernatural threats. Like vampires.”

“Wait, they’re real too?” Rosie said.

“Lara Romany is one,” Molly said. “Think of her as like a succubus. She feeds on lustful feelings, and she can induce them in her targets.”

“But I saw her standing in sunlight,” Drea said, a blush forming on her face as those very feelings started coming to the forefront. How much of that had she had before the vampire had started to dig her hooks into her? How much was natural? “Doesn’t that mean… not a vampire?”

“There’s more than one kind of vampire, Drea,” Drew said. “Lara’s a lot closer to human than the other kinds, so she can stand in the sun. You don’t want to meet the other kinds.”

“Okay, so the two of you are witches then?” Ken asked.

“Wizards,” Molly and I said in unison. We didn’t add the in-training bit because it didn’t matter.

“But you’re girls,” Drea said. “I thought girls were witches.”

“That’s just in Harry Potter,” Molly said.

“And wizarding’s not exactly like that book. She uses the wand,” I said, gesturing with my gloved hand, letting the illusion dissipate. “I don’t, though it’s not fully necessary either way.”

“Believe me, there’s more to see than what they just did,” Drew said. “I’ve seen them throw lightning, track down various things, brew potions...”

“Potions?” Rosie asked, looking at us. “What sorts of potions?”

“All sorts,” Molly said. “Fai and I have a lab that we brew at, attempting various effects.”

“So specific,” Drea said. “What can they do?”

“A lot of different things,” I said, speaking up. “But mostly, we’ve used them to help with problems.”

Rosie turned to her drink and frowned. A bit of worry sparked in her, along with a dawning realization. “Faith, you and Molly got me this tea… What is it, really?”

“An anti-addiction potion,” I said, simply. It was probably about time that she found out. “You needed it. Rehab didn’t work, you’d said, and with the baby on the way...”

Rosie nodded. “Doing anything to hurt my baby is… just unthinkable. The tea’s helped with the cravings. I haven’t had a single one since I started using it.”

“Why use a potion for it?” Drea asked. “Couldn’t you just take the addiction away with magic?”

“Sure. If we wanted to cause permanent brain damage to Rosie,” Molly said.

“Or put our heads on the chopping block.” I looked down at the table. “The potion’s probably pushing it a bit as it is.”

“Bob said that something similar was used during the first Red Court war,” Molly said. “Plus, the only thing we didn’t say about the potion was that it was literally magical.”

I nodded, looking to Rosie. The girl’s feelings were conflicted. She wasn’t  _angry_ per se, but there were some hints of it in her aura. “If it helps, you shouldn’t need to take the potion much longer, and there’s nothing in it that should harm the baby either.”

“I trusted the two of you,” Rosie said, her voice low and controlled. Her tumultuous feelings required a bit more concentration to discern.

“If we’d said it was actually a magic potion, would you have drank it?” Molly asked, her voice low as well. “Rosie, we wanted to help.”

“I know,” Rosie said. “You’d told me that the tea would help with the cravings, and it did. That it would help stop any withdrawal symptoms, and I haven’t had any. Given where I was at, when you came to me with it, I probably would have taken it if you’d said it was magic.”

“Wait, wait, just a second,” Ken said. “You gave my girlfriend a magic potion that some guy named Bob told you was used in some war? Who’s Bob? What’s the Red Court?”

“The Red Court… you don’t want to deal with them,” Molly said. “They’re a type of vampire.”

“Like you say Lara Romany is.” Ken crossed his arms.

“Nastier type, actually drinks blood,” I said. “Also, Bob’s the one who taught us most of our potions knowledge.”

“So, he’s like your Snape or something?” Drea asked. “Potions, it sounds so cool. And it helped Rosie not need rehab anymore.”

“Sorry that we didn’t say sooner,” I said. “It just… never really seemed like the right time, but now you guys are in the thick of something. If any of you had gotten hurt last night...”

“Like Drew?” Ken asked, and the five of us looked to him. A flash of embarrassment rolled through him, and he raised his hands in mock surrender. “I’m just saying that he seemed to know already, and he’s got a prosthetic arm. I’m just putting two and two together.”

I winced, looking to my friend. “What happened to Drew—”

“—was my fault,” Drew said, looking me in the eye. I broke contact before we could get drawn into each other. “I wasn’t careful enough, and I’d let my guard down when I shouldn’t have. It cost me my arm. I was lucky that it didn’t cost me my life. “

“We won’t fault you if you want to leave and forget that this happened, that this is real.” Molly tapped the table. “I’d suggest leaving the con for your best chance. “

Drea placed her hands over both my sister’s and my own. We felt her determination, even through her fear. “I’m not going to leave the two of you here. If you’re staying, I’m staying.”

“You guys helped me kick an addiction,” Rosie said. “I wish you’d told me sooner, but you did tell. I’ll stay too.”

“Rosie, you’re pregnant,” I said. “You, of all people, should probably get going somewhere safe.”

Rosie shook her head, valor winning out over discretion on her part. “We’re staffing this con until the end. Monsters or no monsters.”

“Guess that means I’m staying too,” Ken said. “I’m not entirely sure _what_ I believe about this, but Ro needs to be safe. First sign of danger, I’m getting her away from it.”

Molly and I smiled, and then we winced as we felt a concerned Sandy walking our way, followed by two people we didn’t know. Sandy had to be looking for something or someone, but she seemed indecisive over what to do about it.

“Ah, there they are,” Sandy said, a quaver in her voice. “I don’t know what came over me, I apologize.”

The people following Sandy were a pair of CPD patrolmen, dressed in their police blues. The one on the left had mocha-colored skin and a nice burly mustache that he probably spent hours upkeeping in the morning, and his partner was lighter-skinned and clean-shaven. Both had brown hair and stood at just around six feet tall. They came over to our table and looked directly at my sister and I.

“Miss Carpenter, Miss Carpenter… We’re going to need the two of you to come with us.” The first agent’s voice wasn’t that bad. He had a hint of a Hispanic accent to it.

“Why?” I asked, the question escaping me before I could stop myself.

“The sergeant wants to talk with you about last night.”

Oh. Lovely. This would be fun.

I wondered what they really wanted to know.


	25. Chapter Twenty-Five

My first clue that this wasn’t going to be a simple question and answer session came from the way the uniformed officers acted when they came to get us. My second came from them leading us to separate rooms for the “interview.” They insisted on the separation. Neither one’s emotions were especially notable. Their insistence came more out of a sense of duty to their superior officer rather than any actual desire. They honestly felt like they’d rather be anywhere but where they were. Molly and I didn’t dally long enough to annoy them, and we went into the rooms as they’d instructed.

The room I’d entered wasn’t a large one, maybe about the size of an elementary-school classroom. It had a raised platform about a foot high on one end with a long table and chairs on it to face the audience. This had been designated as one of the panel rooms for filking between noon and five, but I was fairly confident that the panel had been moved elsewhere, which is why it was being used in this fashion. I thought Molly had a room that was more or less similar.

I’d almost expected to have Detective Greene waiting for me in the room already when I’d entered, but save for the furniture, the room was empty. I took one of the chairs on the platform that faced the door and waited for the good Detective. Well, good was probably a relative term. Greene honestly shouldn’t have been the one handling this case to begin with, but he’d claimed jurisdiction over Murphy.

Idly I wondered how long it would take for the detective to come into the room. I took off the hat I wore and set it down on the table alongside the sunglasses. It wouldn’t do to have myself all fanged and mean-looking when someone came in. I didn’t, however, take off my gloves. Self-defense was perfectly kosher.

The door opened after some agonizing seconds, revealing someone that clearly wasn’t Detective Greene. This man was maybe in his later thirties and was of medium height and build. His brown hair was cut short and tousled just enough to be fashionable. He wore a gray suit that would have carried a lot more gravity if his black tie hadn’t featured Marvin the Martian.

“Miss Carpenter?” He asked, and I nodded. “I’m Agent Michelson, FBI. I’m here assisting Chicago Homicide on this case. Detective Greene will be here in a moment. Is there anything I can get you while we wait? Water, tea?”

They got the FBI in on this? That was surprising. I mean yeah, there were three dead, and another eight or nine in the hospital…

“I’m good,” I said. “Just finished up lunch before this.”

“Okay, that’s fine,” said Agent Michelson. “Just to clarify, you are _Faith_ Carpenter, correct?”

“Yes. Molly’s my twin sister,” I said, eyeing the FBI agent.

“Good, good.” Michelson wrote something down on a pad. I suppose I could have checked what he was writing, but I didn’t want to do anything to arouse his suspicions more than they were already.

“Any idea how long we’ll have to wait o—” the door slammed open, and in walked Detective Greene in a tweed suit that was nearly identical to the one he’d been wearing the previous night. Did he own anything else? It still looked terrible on him.

The detective turned toward me on the stage, and he made a face. “Miss Carpenter. Will you please sit down here?”

He gestured to a chair in the second row, and I shrugged, taking my hat and sunglasses off the table, taking them with me as I moved to the designated position. I crossed my legs lightly and turned to the pair of investigators.

“Thank you, Miss Carpenter. Now, standard procedural stuff, you understand. Could you please state your name?” Greene smiled at me, looking at me in the eye. I almost immediately moved away from his watery blue eyes and looked at his nose. No need to go into a soulgaze. I didn’t want to deal with that right now.

“Faith Carpenter,” I said, looking studiously at his nose. I wasn’t going to try and actively impede his investigation, but he wasn’t going to find anything useful. I didn’t think that there would be anyone to arrest for any of this. It was definitely a case that should have gone to Murphy’s team.

“And what’s your home address?”

“Why do you need to know that one?” I asked. Wasn’t he just going to get to the questions about last night? “Can’t you just look it up or something?”

“Miss Carpenter,” Agent Michelson spoke up. “ _Faith_ , we need to know these things before we continue. It’s for identity verification.”

That was a total lie, but he said it in a way that made me decide to go along with it. For now, anyway. I told them where Molly and I lived. Not that they’d be able to get in without a warrant or us there to let them in. We didn’t exactly have anything illegal there anyway, unlike Harry and his depleted uranium.

“Okay then. We’re told that you and your sister are on the staff here. What’s your position?” Greene asked, keeping his voice level.

“Molly and I are general staff. We help out where needed, and I make sure that my statue’s in good shape.” I looked at the detective. He seemed mostly calm on the outside, but his emotions read differently. He was annoyed yet focused. I wasn’t entirely sure what he was annoyed _at_ , as empathy isn’t that precise, but my gut said that Greene wanted to try something. I’d cooperate, as he wasn’t a bad cop, but I wouldn’t let him railroad me.

“Thank you,” Greene said. “Now, I understand you were in the room last night when the incident happened. Could you please explain in your own words what actually happened then?”

“The Reaper attacked, killed people. Hurt others.” I looked down. “Harry came in with Officer Rawlins, and they fought him off.”

“Harry,” Greene said as Rick looked on. Somehow, they both had a spike of annoyance rise in them at the mention of Harry’s name. “This would be Harry Dresden, the private investigator?”

“And wizard,” I said with a small smile. “He’s in the phone book and everything.”

“Right. So Harry Dresden came in with Officer Rawlins and what, scared off the Reaper?” Greene asked. “How did they manage to do that?”

“I heard some gunshots,” I said, as honestly as I could. Rawlins _had_ fired his gun, hadn’t he? “It was dark and hard to see with what he was doing, but there were gunshots. And then the Reaper went flying, like a great force had hit him.” I wasn’t lying, not exactly. It’s just that I was about eighty percent certain that Greene didn’t know magic was real, and I didn’t want to frame it as magic. Plus, that past night had been just… yeah.

“So, they just showed up and scared the guy off?” Greene asked, and I frowned.

“Rawlins shot the Reaper. I’m not sure that’s just scaring him off,” I said. “Or just showing up.”

“Let’s try that again. They showed up, Officer Rawlins showed up with Dresden. They look around the room and what do they see?”

I shivered. I didn’t want to remember how helpless I’d felt. The damn thing had been pulling at me. It was going after  _me_ when Harry and Rawlins had showed up. Stars and stones, he had to be pulling  _something_ with that _._ I just couldn’t figure out what. A bit of warmth came from Molly in the other room, even though she was also talking to someone. Greene’s partner, maybe? 

“What did they see, Miss Carpenter?” Greene asked, reaching into his coat and pulling out a notepad. He flipped backward through it. He knew. He _knew_ what they’d seen, but he wanted me to confirm it. To confirm what was going on. He was asking me this, saw my discomfort, and he felt nothing more than a mild bit of amusement. What was _wrong_ with this guy?

“Me, held by the Reaper,” I said, dipping my eyes. _God_. I could still feel his hand holding me up by my hair. I could feel his presence. I could feel the sureness that I would die. No. My shields were up. “It wasn’t a very fun experience.”

“So, the shots you heard… did you see the muzzle flash?”

“And I saw the bullet holes,” I said, agreeing with him as Molly sent me another bout of warmth. “The Reaper took those shots pretty well. He ended up putting me down in favor of going after Rawlins and Harry.”

I closed my eyes for a second, and I saw that Molly was talking to someone herself. She sent me some warmth, and I sent her a thanks.

“Bullet holes, eh?” Greene asked, flipping through his notebook. “Rick, you’ve seen the room that the thing happened in last night. You see any bullet holes?”

Michelson shook his head. “No, there weren’t any.”

“That’s right, there weren’t any.” Greene turned to look at me. “If there were no bullet holes in the crime scene, why would you say there were?”

I blinked. It was like he was trying to catch me in a lie. Why would he be trying to do that? I didn’t do anything.

“There wouldn’t be holes at the scene. The Reaper got hit.” I gestured to Greene. “Shouldn’t there be a record of Rawlins firing his gun to back that up?”

“Rawlins did fire his gun.” Greene nodded. “But there were no bullet holes in the walls, nor was there blood on the ground.”

“He did hit the Reaper. He got its attention that way,” I said. It was what I remembered happening, after all. The Reaper _had_ put me down. Greene wouldn’t believe the explanation for why there wasn’t blood.

“And then they fought him off, you say. Both of them?”

“I think so. The Reaper did end up leaving.” I really didn’t know how he managed to keep himself so calm, even when he was clearly trying to manipulate me.

“Mmm-hmm...” Greene’s affirmation sounded drier than a desert. “Okay. Let’s change tack. Nelson Lenhardt. You know him, correct?”

“Yes. He’s chief of security for the convention,” I said. Great, was he now going to bring up the arrest? “Or he was, anyway.”

“He was arrested yesterday. Aggravated assault,” Greene said. “It says here that you were there when he was bailed out.”

I blinked. They kept records of these things? Well, he’d had to have gotten it from somewhere. “Does it really matter?”

“What is Lenhardt to you?” Greene asked. “You know he has a record.” And I didn’t, nor did my sister. The ones who arrested me that one time… weren’t supposed to. It never got added to my record.

“I _did_ know he had a record. Nelson’s Molly’s boyfriend,” I said. “That was something that came up while they were dating. Is there somewhere this is going?”

“Pell woke up. Said that the man who assaulted him was dressed as a movie character, just like the one who attacked the room you were in last night.” Greene crossed his arms. “Just where _was_ Mister Lenhardt last night?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. I had a few guesses, but I didn’t know where Nelson’d gone off to after picking up Darby Crane.

“Come now, Faith,” Greene said. “You don’t have to defend him, but given how good _your_ costume is...”

“What?” I blinked. He wasn’t really trying to turn this around on me, was he?

“What was it? Give the guy a good costume, have him scare a few people?” Greene asked, suspicion coloring his voice and emotions. “But it got out of hand, didn’t it? And now people are dead because of him.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“So enlighten me,” Greene said, spreading his arms. “Three people are dead. Five are in the hospital, but it could have been more. You saw what he was doing, and you tried to stop him. To reason with him. But he wasn’t reasonable, was he?”

“Nelson didn’t do it,” I said firmly. I wasn’t going to let him get to me. I just wasn’t.

“Why not? He assaulted Pell in the bathroom.” Greene glared at me. His suspicion gave way to anger. “Or maybe you helped him somehow. Maybe you just—”

“Greene!” Michelson called out. “Take a time out. This isn’t a right thing to do.”

That’s it. I was done with this.  _Molly, they’re… trying to make us accomplices or something._

_They don’t have enough to hold us._ Molly sent.  _Are you okay?_

_Last night_ _**wasn’t** _ _ my fault. _ I stood up, gathering up my effects.

“Sit down, Miss Carpenter,” Greene said. “It’s not time for you to leave yet.”

“Really?” I asked. “Then when can I leave?”

“When we’re done in here,” Greene said. “You’ll be free to go.”

“So I’m being detained then?” I asked. “Why? I’ve answered all your questions.”

“We’re trying to figure out what happened last night,” Michelson said calmly. Still, I felt some annoyance from him, directed toward Greene. Maybe the FBI didn’t like doing what Greene was. “Your testimony can do a lot to help with that.”

“I’d rather not,” I said.

“Sit down, Miss Carpenter.” Greene glared at me as he climbed onto the stage. “We’ve only barely begun.”

Greene’s orders when I’d done nothing wrong were bringing out the rebellious teenager in me. That last night had not been my fault. It was something supernatural, and whatever had happened to Pell was also. I didn’t want to focus on last night. Three people dead. Three people I’d  _ felt _ die. I’d felt the life slip out of them, their emotions fading into nothing but silence. The pain they felt as their lives were cut short. I felt all of the injuries as they’d happened, all of the pain and worry. But most of all, what I’d been overwhelmed by, the most pervasive emotion in that room… was the fear. 

“I think,” I said, crossing my arms and trying to keep my emotions from warbling my voice. “You have nothing to keep me here and certainly nothing to arrest me with. I want to grab my sister, and we can go.”

“Not yet, you can’t,” Greene said, calming himself down. “Sit down. I have some more questions that you need to answer.”

Right. So they were detaining me without actually saying they were. They were keeping me in this room until they got what they wanted, and they felt they could. After all, what was I but a simple teenager who knew nothing? I gathered my will. I wasn’t going to let this detective get to me. Not more than he already had, anyway. I just needed to gather my will a little more, make sure my energy was there, and then I spoke the words of power to unleash the spell that would stop this farce.

“I want to talk to my lawyer.”

Greene’s eyes flared slightly, and a bout of annoyance accompanied by a growing headache showed up within him. He stalked off the stage and toward the door to the room, Michelson behind him. “Stay here, Miss Carpenter. I’ll have more questions for you when I get back.”

As the door closed behind them, I heard them mentioning not letting me out of the room to the officers outside. Lovely. Just how many illegal things was he wanting to try to catch a killer that he couldn’t?


	26. Interlude: Andrew Warren

I excused myself from the table after the twins got escorted off by the police. I’d heard the cops mention something about questioning, but I saw the look they had. They were after something. Neither Faith nor Molly deserved anything like that, and with Nelson’s past… The detectives would be on the twins like white on rice.

Turning to Sandy, I asked, “So, they specifically asked for Fai and Molly?”

“Yes, Andrew,” Sandy said. “I wasn’t sure that I should let it happen, but they said all the detectives wanted to do was talk.”

“If they stay in there too long, it’s more than talking,” I said, watching the woman. She had been a regular at the game store Faith, Molly and I hung out at, and she recruited us to help with the convention after the twins got back from their… whatever. Faith… She’d still seemed so devastated when she got back, but Molly insisted that she was better than she’d been. “If you see Dresden, you might want to let him know.”

“Of course. In the meantime, I still have things to run here. Excuse me.” Sandy scurried off out of the staff room just as more members came in to get their lunch. I exited as well. There was no reason to wait too long, and I had duties the same as anyone else. I’d find the girls later, and if there was something that needed doing, we’d do it. Together. Them with their magic… and me with my… arm.

Magic. Imagine finding out magic is real for the first time. Drea, Rosie and Ken got lucky in how Faith and Molly chose to show it off. A three-dimensional fractal illusion gave off a sense of wonder. I had the unfortunate luck to have to beat the snot out of two of my friends while a third mind-controlled them as she tried to summon something that made Great Cthulhu look like a puppy.  _ That _ got me recruited into the Venatori, and the twins as well. While that little girl gave me the chance to forget it, to remember something else, I chose to remember what really happened, to know that my best friend and her sister could do things that I could only dream of.

Of course, now we had until sundown to stop a ritual. Faith and Molly seemed to think that we’d disrupted it already, but I knew smart bad guys. They always had some sort of backup. The problem was that with the twins in with the cops, I’d have to rely on something Faith had put into the prosthetic arm I wore to figure out which papers were the magical ones. Ideally it wouldn’t end with me running into any more constructs like Jason or Jigsaw.

Still, I was better positioned now than a year and a half ago. Far more paranoid now too. There really were monsters everywhere, and as Dresden says, it’s not paranoia when a monster’s really trying to eat your face. Something like that anyway. Whatever these were, they were taking the forms of movie killers, and they were using them against us. They were hurt by iron, which meant faeries of some sort, but the two I’d seen lacked some sort of intelligence. They acted more like they were on remote control.

Faith, by contrast, had dealt with the Reaper. My… honestly, I really don’t know what to call her anymore, but she’d faced down the Reaper while our other friends looked on. Selflessness or recklessness, she’d taken it upon herself to protect the others, but sometimes I wondered if she took too much. I really didn’t want the girl I cared for getting killed because she didn’t care about her life. I just wished I could say that to her face. Things had gotten especially awkward about that since I lost my arm and she… left. We couldn’t exactly pick up where we’d left off. There was too much baggage for that.

I pushed my way through the crowds of the convention. Sure, there were more people here today than yesterday and more would come as they got off work, but there still wasn’t enough to make a truly impossible pathway. I had an idea of where there might have been more. The other runes were on drawings, and every room of the convention had them. So I started going in and removing the drawings while no other staff members were looking. I stopped in three rooms that were showing different horror films, but I didn’t have time to stop and watch the films myself. This evening, Lara had said. We only had until this evening to make sure the ritual was stopped, otherwise something like what had happened with Cecelia would happen here.

I couldn’t let that happen. I wasn’t going to lose more of my friends, and I knew that Faith and Molly felt the same way. So I swiped the drawings. I figured, the less runes they had, the less likely they’d be able to do what they meant to, and as I went to go to the fourth room, one that was empty, I paused as I saw Sandy step inside. I moved closer to the door, just so I could see what she was doing. Sandy was my boss, but there were a few things in the way she acted recently that had me a little suspicious.

“—don’t understand it. Everything was in order this morning,” a male voice that was slightly familiar said as I got within earshot.

“And now it’s not,” Sandy said. “We planned for the guests, and I’m happy that we managed to get as many back as we did after that SNAFU last night. Things were supposed to be under control.”

What were the two of them talking about, and who was Sandy talking to? What was in order? The convention? She couldn’t be talking about the runes that I’d been gathering… or the ones we’d destroyed before lunch, right?

“Yes, they were. And whose fault is that?”

“Don’t pin this on me.” I heard Sandy shuffle around in the room. “You were supposed to make sure things remained as they were.”

“Hard to do that without free reign,” the male voice said. “And the cops around make things anything but free.”

“At least they haven’t shut down the convention,” Sandy said. “I don’t know what we’d do otherwise. The plans had been in the works fo—”

“I know how long this has been going on.” The voice sounded like the speaker was annoyed. “I know what you put into this. You told me before.”

Whatever Sandy was talking about, it didn’t sound like she liked what had happened any more than her partner. The convention was her baby and she didn’t want to disrupt it.

“I did?” Sandy sounded genuinely confused. “Right. So you know it has to go well.”

“Right, it does,” the male voice said. “So, how are we going to fix it?”

Anything more I would have heard from them was interrupted by a voice calling out to me down the hall. “Drew! Hey Drew! Warren! Get your ass over here, my man!”

Immediately, I grimaced. I really disliked anyone using the term “my man” when referring to me. Just really a personal pet peeve of mine, but it was something that had irked me since I was little. It might have had something to do with Dad’s teammates, but honestly? I knew it was an irrational dislike. So I tried not to harp on it too hard. Even if I’d told the guy about twenty times by now not to do it. It made him sound like a moron. Damn it, Nelson.

“You coming, Drew?” Nelson was waving from further down the hall, and after shaking my head a couple times, I walked over to the idiot. He was wearing a different SplatterCon!!! shirt than he had been wearing yesterday, but I was pretty sure he was wearing the same set of jeans. Honestly, I didn’t think he owned much else, even if his money should have been going to something different these days.

“Nelson,” I acknowledged his presence as I got close, and he gave me a grunt, echoing my hello. He looked a bit better than how he did after we’d gotten him out of lockup, but it didn’t look like he’d gotten much sleep. Supernatural bullshit will do that to you. “You okay, bud?”

While I didn’t exactly consider Nelson much of a friend, he was dating my best friend’s twin sister. In some ways, it was almost like dating Faith, but Molly had… strange tastes sometimes. Despite how similar the two of them were, Faith didn’t prefer her guys to be lanky and tall. I’m proof of that. That said, I was pretty confident that Molly was being a good Catholic with him. I wouldn’t have to put up with some of the guy’s complaints if she weren’t.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just fine,” Nelson said. “I’m here, aren’t I? Did you hear about last night, man? I wasn’t here. I went home after dropping off Crane, but you heard, right?”

“Yeah. Fai was in there,” I said, following it up with a small grunt. “It was pretty bad.”

“Damn. She was in there?” Nelson shook his head. Something about him today had me on edge. There was something in his demeanor. “Is she okay? Is Molly okay too? I mean, they’ve got to be or else you wouldn’t be here.”

“Got that right,” I said. If Faith were to get seriously injured, I’d be by her hospital bedside in a heartbeat. Even with this distance between us, I still cared a lot for her, and I suspected she did the same for me in return. “Yeah… she’s a bit shaken up, but that’s mostly it. She got lucky.”

“What was it? I heard it was some guy in a mask,” Nelson said. “Trying to make me look bad. I mean, after what happened yesterday, somehow...” He shook his head. I’d heard his story, and it’d made little sense… if you didn’t know magic and the supernatural were real, of course. Something could have come into that bathroom and left without ever opening the door.

“Not sure. Guy in the mask is plausible.”

Nelson grunted his agreement. “Mm… pity. You know, Molly still won’t put out? Faith like that for you?”

“That’s not really your business, and remember their family,” I said. God, what did Molly see in this guy? He wasn’t good enough for her, for certain. There was a reason their parents didn’t like him. Well, actually there were several. I caught his eye for a second and frowned. His pupils were dilated, and I could see that he was sweating quite a bit. 

“Oh, come on, you can tell me. Who am I going to tell?” Nelson asked. He wasn’t slurring his words, but I wasn’t sure this was something he’d normally say. “What does she like? Is it the same as Molly?”

“You really shouldn’t be talking about your girlfriend like that,” I said. “Or Faith. They won’t like it.”

“Oh, how are they going to find out? You?” Nelson asked. “I’m sure they’ll believe me over a cripple.”

A  _ what _ ? I was an amputee, sure, but a cripple? I could walk and function in everyday life, and even if I were, that would ruin my credibility, how? Oh look, everyone knows cripples can’t be trusted. Just like that gang out on the West Coast, the Crips… Sounded like something South Park would do. Hell, it probably was something they  _ did _ . 

No… Nelson had some issues going on with him at the moment. I could tell from the way he was twitching his right hand throughout the conversation. Honestly, he really couldn’t have expected me to answer with that statement if he’d had any memory for where he was or whom he was talking to. He wasn’t usually this much of an ass.

“The hell is wrong with you?” I growled, looking him over. I wasn’t going to take that from him. “Saying something like that...”

“What? I’m just being accurate.” Nelson smiled, and damn if I didn’t want to punch him in the face. I restrained myself though. His pupils took up way too much of his eyes for me to do it. It was almost as-if… no, if he’d been using again, he’d be holed up in a room somewhere. Heroin did not make for an active addict. “You’ve got one arm, Drew. And one fake one.”

“Congratulations, you pass basic perception,” I said with a faux-clap of my two hands, real and prosthetic. “Don’t use the word as an insult.”

“It’s not a big deal. It’s not like I said another word that’s also perfectly accurate about you.” Once again. What did Molly see in this guy? “Of course, I’m not racist, so using that word would be dumb.”

I actually facepalmed. This was too much. It obviously wasn’t heroin, but the man in front of me definitely wasn’t sober. “Nelson. Tell me one thing. What the  _ hell _ are you on?”

“Oh, nothing major,” Nelson said dismissively before leaning in. “It’s just meth.”

Meth. Crystal meth. Are you kidding me? I guessed that explained the pupils, his twitching, and the other signs, but I couldn’t believe that he’d do that. “Didn’t you just get off of heroin? How is this any better?”

“Oh, the kick. It kicks so much harder than smack. And the high lasts… Well, I’m still on it.” Nelson laughed.

“You just got arrested yesterday and you’re using today?” This was honestly complete and total bullshit. The only reason I cared at all about this waste of space was because he mattered to Molly. I’d sooner have let him rot in the cell the previous night than bail him out, but the Carpenter twins made decisions. This one might have been a mistake. “Seriously, why would you risk this?”

“Please...” Nelson said dismissively. “Up in the room reserved for me, I’ve got a stash of the special tea that Molly gave me. No hangover. No ill effects. Just a nice clean high.”

“You moron,” I growled. I might not have know much about potions, but I could have guessed that what he was doing would probably end poorly in the long run. In fact, I was pretty sure of it. “You really think it’s that easy?”

“Of course it is!” Nelson exclaimed. “Sure, I stopped for a little while, but then I realized, why stop when the tea helps? And it even helps with this!”

Of course it did. I remembered Molly making some for Faith, when she’d been afflicted by the Red Court venom. It stopped that high, and it broke the addictive qualities. I didn’t know much about potions, or magic in general, despite being best friends with two wizards, but I did know that it had a lot to do with intent. I greatly suspected that Nelson not intending to quit using overall meant that the potion wouldn’t work properly.

“Fai and Molly won’t like that,” I said.

“What, are you going to tell them like a snitching bitch?” Nelson asked, a little loudly, and I looked around. Wonderful. People were _staring_.

“Nelson. You got _arrested_ yesterday. And there’s cops here.” I honestly didn’t know why I was bothering other than Molly being unhappy. Which would make Faith unhappy, and I didn’t want her unhappy. Either of them, really. “Let’s go somewhere a little more private.”

I lightly reached for his shoulder, and he dropped into a martial arts stance. The  _ moron _ . I saw the punch coming seconds before it did, and I immediately moved my prosthetic to block. Shoving his arm out of the way with my metal arm, I grabbed his shirt with my right hand. 

“Come on.”

“What, bitch?” Nelson said. Okay. Crystal meth really tainted his vocabulary. “Whatcha going to do, bitch? Only watch as I take the twin bitches like the sexy beasts they are. It’s all you cripples are good for.”

This… fucking high. Nelson was easier to deal with on heroin. I pulled on his shirt, and he pushed himself out of my grip. So I shoved him, and he stumbled backward. I grabbed his shirt again, catching him before he fell into a group of observers that had gathered. No. I couldn’t blame it only on the high. Something was fundamentally wrong with Nelson.

“You’re not going to touch her,” I said. “No, what you’re going to do, is you’re going to confess to them.”

“Eat me, cripple.” He took another swing at me, and I suspected it would have connected if he weren’t high, but he was, and I was able to block it, again with my prosthetic. It could take more of a beating than my normal arm. He started shaking his hand, and I grabbed his shirt again.

“Come on, Nelson. Let’s get you out of the crowd,” I said, pulling him into a darkened room. The projector in this room had gone on the fritz earlier, so nothing was showing in here until it was done. Perfect for dealing with a drugged up moron. “Now, sit down and shut it.”

“Fuck off,” Nelson swung at me again, and this time, he connected with the shoulder of my left arm. In response, now that we were out of public view, I threw my own punch. Mine was better aimed, taking advantage of his opening.

One thing that isn’t often mentioned in media is just how much it actually hurts to punch someone. When I slammed my fist into Nelson’s idiot jaw, I’d been throwing the punch at full speed. The impact sounded almost like a thunderclap, and to my surprise, he dropped like a sack of bricks.

Great. After verifying that he still breathed, I decided to leave him in the room so he could sleep off his high. Well, I’d decided that primarily because dragging him up to his room… probably would attract attention that I’d rather not have, much like Faith and Molly.

I didn’t trust the cops not to pull something, come to think of it. The cops of this city, save for a few, weren’t exactly the bastions of morality they pretended to be. So I figured I’d hedge my bets with my friends; I reached into my pocket and pulled out my Nokia, powering it on. Once it was fully turned on, I dialed a number that I’d had memorized since I was six.

After the third ring, the person I was calling picked up. “Hello?”

“Father Forthill? This is Andrew Warren. I need some advice...”

“Of course, my son. How may I help?”

“It’s a bit complicated, but here’s what I’ve seen going on...”


	27. Chapter Twenty-Six

Feasibly, I could have left the room at any time. Open the door while veiled, walk past the confused officers on the other side, grab my sister, and we could have booked it to wherever we wanted to go next. The only problem with that is we’d look guiltier than all hell at whatever the heck Greene wanted to pin on us. Legally, I could have left the room normally. Sure, the cops guarding would probably have tried to stop me, but there really wasn’t anything they could do unless they wanted to get either physical or actually detain me properly. At which point, my call for a lawyer would get far more insistent. Of course, that would have added more delays which we really didn’t have time for.

Sure, Molly and I might have disrupted the ritual, but that didn’t mean that we’d succeeded at stopping the people behind it. There might have been an alternative plan, and we wouldn’t be able to deal with that plan if we were stuck at a police station. _Oh yes, sorry about the world-ending Old One. We were too busy being_ _ **locked up**_ _to deal with the threat._ Yeah, that’d go off well... with whoever was left. Dresden might have been at the convention, but he only knew of the one threat. The other one was one we still had to finish dealing with or verify that it was gone.

So, for the moment, staying in the room until the police actually let me leave seemed the best plan. I’d just repeatedly insist upon a lawyer until they actually let me near a phone to call one. Molly felt much the same way, but apparently her questioner had been… less of an asshole about the questions. She’d only been questioned on how close she was with her boyfriend.

_ Yeah,  _ _**only.** _ Molly scoffed in my mind.  _ Fai, they asked me when the last time Nelson and I… _

_ Kissed? _ I suggested innocently. Of course, I knew Molly could feel how innocent it actually wasn’t.

_ You know what they asked. _ I could just picture my sister growling just there, and I sent over some more smug feelings. Well, mostly smug. For about a second. I switched to comforting after that because what the hell kind of business was it of the cops if my sister had a sex life or not? I mean, I knew she didn’t, not beyond third base anyway, but it really wasn’t something that needed to be shared. With anyone that wasn’t me, of course.

_Well, at least they didn’t try to make you o—_

_ Yeah they did. _ Molly probably was huffing at that moment. If not for the hair, she’d look just like Mom.  _ Tried to pass me off as Nelson’s ‘accomplice.’ I asked for the lawyer and they left me in here. _

Molly and I had never actually needed a lawyer before this point, but I was pretty certain that we knew at least two ways of getting them. Alerting Lara or Thomas would probably have us out of here and back to work pretty fast, but sadly, there were no phones in either room. We’d use cellphones if there was a chance in hell that we wouldn’t fry them upon them entering our hands.

_ So they’re out talking with each other then?  _ I asked, mostly in a rhetorical manner.

_Yeah. Seems like._

I blew out a sigh, which blew into my hat, lying on top of my face. While I could have moved toward the door and Listened to see what they were saying, I didn’t know how far out they’d gone. If I knew more or less where they were, I’d be able to Listen in easier, but even that had limits. Better to just wait in this case..

_ You just logiced away trying to eavesdrop, didn’t you?  _ Molly asked, and I sent back a grumbling affirmation.  _ There are probably about fifteen hundred people here, Fai. I’m not close enough to help you filter between them properly. _

_ I know, but they’re just taking so long, and I’m worried we won’t finish in time. _ We really needed to make sure that ritual was stopped. Sticking around here and waiting for them to come so that we could leave was terrible.  _ You know, this wouldn’t be half-bad if the panel were actually here. _

_ What, you wanted to sing a Suburban Slasher rendition of “All Star” or something? _ Molly’s amusement made me smile. 

_Well, we_ _do_ _have a good singing voice. Voices. We have good voices._ I shook my head, even as I could feel the longing grasp of my sister’s aura. Though we were in separate rooms, dealing with separate things, we still were there for each other. _It could have been f—_

_ Think they’re coming. _ Molly cut me off, and she was right, of course. I could feel the FBI Agent and Greene approaching the door now. Greene seemed a bit calmer, but I could feel the annoyance beneath the surface.

Michelson, by contrast, seemed a bit agitated. Something about this wasn’t sitting right with him, but he was going along with it. Of course, I couldn’t tell whether it was in his body language or not, as I had a hat covering my face while I laid down.

If they weren’t going to respect my desire for a lawyer or to leave, I wasn’t going to give them the respect that they felt they deserved. Simple as that.

Someone cleared his throat. I assumed it was Greene because he was the one who spoke. “Miss Carpenter. Please sit up.”

“Going to let me talk to my lawyer?” I asked, tilting my hat only slightly up with one hand.

“In time,” Greene said. “We just want some more questions answered first.”

“Any more questions can be asked with my lawyer around,” I said, dipping the hat back over my face.

“Sit up, Miss Carpenter.” Greene’s voice echoed his feelings at that moment. He wasn’t quite angry, but my actions had annoyed him. Good. Still, there wasn’t any point in antagonizing him more than I needed to. I sat up, and I moved the hat onto my head properly. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Going to let me call my lawyer?” I asked, and I carefully looked at his nose. His watery blue eyes stared down at me from where he stood. For some reason, he’d climbed onto the stage, which in of itself wouldn’t mean much, but he clearly felt he needed the high ground with me.

“Do you really need a lawyer, Miss Carpenter?” Greene asked. “I mean, if you did nothing wrong...”

“If you thought I did nothing wrong or that you couldn’t pin something on me, I wouldn’t be in here,” I said, pulling my sunglasses out and slipping them on my face. I was extremely tempted to trigger the glamour, but that wouldn’t be the right thing to do at the moment. “So, yes. I need a lawyer.”

“After we clarify a few things,” Greene said, with Michelson being suspiciously quiet. “We know that you stood up to the guy in the Reaper costume… after the deaths and the injuries. We know that after you stood up to him, there were no more deaths or major injuries. Even you only had some minor cuts and bruises, according to the paramedics. So my question is why? If you weren’t involved with what had happened, why would someone who’d shown no compunction against killing or maiming do nothing to you?”

I stared at Greene. That… actually was a good question, now that I thought about it. Of course, the detective wouldn’t know its significance if it bit him on the ass. The Reaper had managed to hurt or kill eight people, but when I stepped in, it soft-served me. It had the opportunity to do far more to me than it did. Hell,  _ Jason _ had managed to hurt me pretty badly, more than the Reaper did, and Jason was something completely different. We’d actually managed to stop Jason through the timing of Car Ex Machina. Well, it wasn’t actually the  _ Ex Machina _ , but close enough. Why wouldn’t the Reaper want to harm me? What made me special? It wasn’t like—

Sharp pain stabbed through my mind like an icy knife, and I gripped the sides of my head, groaning. Damn it… I should have been able to remember that. I should have been able to remember but… it hurt. It just… gah. Stars and stones, it’d be one thing if I’d just forgotten, but something was seriously wrong here. What was it? Why did it hurt to try and remember? God. It shouldn’t have hurt enough to make me cry, but those were tears running down my cheeks. I felt some worried warmth from Molly, and I sent her some reassurance back. I would be fine. I needed to be fine for her.

“Miss Carpenter?” Michelson asked. “Are you okay?”

“Fine…” I rubbed my head a little, removing the hat and placing it in my lap.

“Do you need anything?” Michelson actually felt like he cared about me while Greene was impassive and suspicious. He probably thought I was faking. I knew I wasn’t.

“Two ibuprofen, some water,” I started listing what I needed. “And my lawyer.”

“I can get you the first two,” Michelson said, and I leveled a glare at him. Glaring at someone without looking in their eyes is difficult, but I like to think I’d mastered it. It’s all about body language. “We’ll see on the third.”

Michelson did get me the meds and water. Well, more specifically, he had the uniforms at the door go do it, and they came back quick with it. I downed the ibuprofen and half the cup of water quickly, once I was given them.

“Thanks,” I said in a quiet tone to Michelson. Greene’s annoyance seemed to grow. It was like he wasn’t just annoyed with me but the situation as well, and it reflected in the look on his face as he crossed his arms. “I still want my lawyer.”

“You’ll get him or her,” he said. “It’s just going to take a lit—“

The door slammed open, interrupting him. The noise had been almost a jump scare in of itself, but when I looked, I saw a sight for sore eyes. Sure, I should have felt his approach, but I’d been focusing on reining in my range, which meant that I was only focusing on the two in the room with me. Harry Dresden entered the room, dressed in his leather duster over a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt. He wore the same shoes he wore the previous day, and I could see the his shield bracelet, his energy ring, and he even had his staff on him. He wore a backpack today as well, and now that he was in the room, I could feel a familiar warding in there. He’d brought the skull. Bob. Why? I wasn’t certain.

“Excuse me,” Greene said as Harry walked into the room like he owned it. “This room isn’t open to the public.”

“It isn’t?” Harry said, being Harry. “Man. I was really looking forward to a nice afternoon of filking too.”

“You too? It’s actually pretty fun,” I said, smiling at the wizard. “Hey Harry...”

“Heya, kid.” He nodded to me, and he walked further into the room, and the _other_ familiar thing I felt with him followed along. 

Mouse came right over to me, his emotions clearly asking for what he wanted. Well, so did the wagging of his tail and the fact that he was pushing his muzzle up against my hands.

“Okay, you not-so-little mutt,” I said, hugging him. “It’s good to see you.”

Mouse looked around as Greene mentioned something to Harry about interfering with an investigation. Bullshit.

“Where’s your sister?” Harry asked me, ignoring Greene.

I pet Mouse a little more with one hand before sticking a gloved thumb out toward the door. “Room across the hall. They wanted to talk to us separately.”

“Dresden,” Greene snarled. Well, that was genuine anger in the detective. I didn’t know what Harry did to deserve that, but it probably had to do with how Greene didn’t like him at all.

“Separate, eh?” Harry smiled at me. “Guess they didn’t want the twin effect or something.”

I shrugged. “Who knows?”

Greene said something that would probably have gotten my mouth washed out with soap at one point in time and reached for his radio, presumably to try and get more uniforms in here to deal with Harry. Both Harry and I were feeling especially vindictive, and in a strange sense of synchronicity, we both muttered something under our breath and made a little effort of will. The radio sparked and then wisps of smoke escaped from it. Greene slammed his hand on the radio a few times before snarling out, “Dammit, Dresden. Get out before I have you taken downtown.”

I rolled my eyes as Harry asked Michelson about his wedding. Of course, Harry knew the FBI Agent. Michelson seemed like that kind of person. Maybe he was… Oh… wait…  _ that _ Rick? 

Greene started blustering about obstruction and revoking Harry’s license. I knew it wouldn’t go anywhere. Harry wouldn’t have come in without a plan.

“Nah, I don’t think you’ll do that,” Harry said.

“Oh yeah, tough guy?” Greene started toward the door.

I stood up. There was no way I was missing this.

“Sit down, Miss Carpenter,” Greene said. “We’re not done yet.”

“Yeah, I think we are,” I said. “We were done when I asked for my lawyer and you didn’t let me call him.”

“ _Detective_ ,” Harry said reproachfully. “Not letting her have her lawyer? For shame. Of course, she doesn’t really need it. She, and her sister, can go any time they damn well please.”

“They need to answer some more questions first,” Greene said.

“Lawyer. Do you need me to spell it?” I asked.

“Lawyer’s a right to the arrested, right? Or rather, everyone has a right to a lawyer, especially if they’ve been arrested. She could have walked out at any time and there wasn’t anything you could do about it. Unless you did arrest her or her sister. Which, you didn’t, did you?”

I shrugged. “They kept me in here.”

“We were questioning an eyewitness,” Michelson said.

“And her sister?” Harry asked.

“Ongoing investigation, she was needed.”

“So, either of you have a subpoena then?” Harry asked. Neither of them had shown me one, and I sent some information to Molly. Looked like Murphy was handling her room. That was good. “See, a witness shouldn’t feel the need to call a lawyer, but Faith clearly did. You don’t have anything on her, not really. No court order, and you haven’t arrested her. So anything she says is entirely voluntary.”

“Knew that,” I said. “Not that they mentioned it.”

“So they would have let you think it wasn’t?” Harry asked. “For shame. Greene, did you lie to her, make her think she was under suspicion?”

Hell’s bells, I  _ was _ under suspicion for some reason. Greene didn’t lie exactly, but he didn’t dispel that notion. I barely heard Greene’s snarl about his statements.

“So, are you recording this then? Can we review the tape? This _is_ on the record, right?”

“You have nothing, Dresden. Get out or I’ll have you barred from the hotel,” Greene said, and wow, that was a lot of rage.

Harry smirked, rubbing his mouth. “Man, that’s a rough decision. See, it’d be an issue if you did go through with it because maybe the press would find out that you’re dismissing professional consultants with a proven track record with the city.” Harry smiled and leaned forward. “Oh, and they might find out about you illegally interrogating and detaining two juveniles.”

“What?” Greene asked, and Michelson looked at me as well.

“Juveniles, you understand the word, right? Means they’re underage, can’t legally give consent. This whole thing’s not exactly right, and you know it. I took the liberty of sending for their parents. I’m sure that you and their lawyer will have some extremely interesting things to speak about.” Harry smiled, and this triggered a bit of deja vu in me. Except, this wasn’t exactly deja vu. This was something out of my memories, almost exactly. I could almost recall it clearly.

Mouse looked to me, and I focused on him, rather than on Greene’s and Harry’s conversation. Harry had it well in hand, and he even had backup in the form of a reporter. The detective left the room, being chased by a small Asian woman with a press badge and a voice recorder.

After Greene left, but while Harry and Michelson were caught up in some sort of conversation, two familiar people entered the room. Molly and Murphy entered, and Molly practically teleported next to me and Mouse. She wrapped me into a hug from behind and started petting behind Mouse’s ears. He liked that a lot.

The three of us looked up as the door slammed. Apparently whatever conversation Harry, Murphy and Michelson had ended with him leaving in a huff. They turned to us now.

“Are the two of you alright?” Murphy asked.

“Dicks wouldn’t let me call my lawyer,” I said before shaking my head. “I’m fine. They didn’t get to me.”

“Much, Fai. They didn’t get to you much,” Molly said, squeezing the hug tighter. “Just because you’re good at costuming doesn’t mean that you should be a suspect. If that were the case, it’d be half the people at the convention.”

Harry looked to Murphy and then to me. “Maybe I should have gotten Lydia in here sooner. Faith, anything I can do to help?”

“You’ve helped a lot already,” I said, waving Dresden off. “How was your morning?”

“Wizardly,” Harry said, his eyes flicking around the room, and I repressed the urge to groan. “Why did the two of you come back today anyway?”

“We volunteered for the entire convention,” Molly said calmly. “Sandy would have been more than a few people short if we hadn’t.”

“You didn’t really call Mom, did you?” I asked. If she was on her way here, we needed to get things wrapped up even quicker.

“No, I didn’t, actually,” Harry said, and we could hear the honesty in his voice. Then we looked to the door as another person entered the room, Sandy.

Sandy rushed over to us, wrapping the two of us in tight hugs, which we returned with gusto. “I’m sorry that I let them know where you were. If I’d had any idea that they were going to try something like this...”

“It’s okay, Sandy,” Molly said.

“We understand.” I smiled at our friend. “Greene had a bug up his butt.”

“Did you reach them?” Harry asked, looking at Sandy after the hug was broken.

“Yes. Mrs. Carpenter is on the way.”

I blinked. Crap. Now we had a shorter time limit. Dealing with that would make things even tougher. Either that, or we’d have to let Mom know when she got here, exactly what we’d thought was going on. While leaving the Venatori stuff out.

“Good,” Dresden said. “Do you think you could stay with them until she arrives?”

“It’s no trouble,” Sandy said, smiling at us. Traitor.

“Wait, what are you going to be doing?” Molly asked.

“I’ve got some things to figure out and spells to cast. I’m going to make sure the killer doesn’t get to kill again,” Harry said.

“And we can’t help with that?” I asked. “We’re the ones who called you in the first place.”

“You could, but with the cops having an interest in you, it’d get a bit messy,” Harry said.

“And since you’re minors, we can’t easily pass you off as interning under Harry.” Murphy crossed her arms. “While you do have a reason to be here, you want to stay off Greene’s radar any more than you already have.”

“We didn’t do anything wrong,” my sister and I said, and then I continued. “Just because he doesn’t know about the supernatural.”

Murphy cleared her throat, looking to Sandy.

Sandy shook her head. “I know about the twins. Faith’s metalwork is sold through my website.”

“Ah,” Murphy said.

“She’s been a big help,” I admitted. “Just like we could help you.”

“Grasshopper,” Harry said, his voice chastising. “You faced a lot last night, had your shields needing to be rebuilt from scratch. I don’t want you dealing with this anymore, and your mother wouldn’t want it either. I know you’re strong. I trained you. But take some time to heal, okay?”

“I’ll make sure she does, Harry,” Molly said, wrapping her arm around my shoulders.

“Good. We need to get back to the prep work. I’ll see the two of you at your house, later.” Harry stood, and he started walking out of the room, flanked on either side by Murphy and Mouse. On the other side of the door when he opened it stood Drew. “Excuse me.”

Drew stepped aside, holding the door with his good arm. “Good to see you again, Dresden, Detective.”

Harry and Murphy both gave grunts that sounded almost like they were constipated, but Drew seemed satisfied with that as he stepped into the room.

“Done with the cops already?” Drew asked.

“Mister Dresden seems to be good at what he does, Andrew,” Sandy said with a small smile. Relief flushed through her for some reason. “Their mother is on the way to pick them up.”

Drew nodded, as if he were expecting that, but something seemed off. He seemed suspicious about something. “Father Forthill will probably come with her. He’s got a law degree and the appropriate license.”

Drew approached the three of us and took a seat nearby. “Sandy, do you think I could talk with the girls here, alone?”

“I did tell Mister Dresden that I would wait with them until their mother came,” she said.

“It’ll just be for a few minutes.”

I cocked my head, but Drew smiled at that. His suspicion grew, as he focused.

“Okay, Andrew. I’ll be just outside the door.” Sandy stood and left the room, glancing back at us for a second. Concern welled up in her, but so did… actually, I wasn’t sure I could identify that emotion. I hadn’t felt someone feeling it before. It was new. Which was strange because I could have sworn that Molly and I could recognize every emotion under the sun.

Molly noticed it as well as the door shut behind Sandy.  _ The heck? _

_ No clue. _ I shrugged, turning toward Drew. “Okay, well, the cops are gone, what did you want to talk about?”

“I think I know who might be behind the ritual,” Drew said quietly, glancing to the door. Wait. He didn’t mean…

“That can’t be. This is her baby,” Molly said, also keeping her voice down.

“It’s...” Drew shook his head. “Doesn’t mean she’s not the source. I heard her talking to someone.”

“So it’s more than one person?” I asked, frowning. The unidentified emotion seemed to grow a bit outside the door. I couldn’t figure out what it was or why Sandy was feeling it. It was incongruous with the rest of her.

Drew nodded. “That’s what I heard. Her and some guy. I don’t know who the guy could be, but we should at least check with her...”

“And say what, ‘Sandy are you summoning something you shouldn’t be?’” I snorted, but that feeling was making the hairs on the back of my arm stand on edge. Molly felt much the same.

“It’s called the Source of Fear,” Sandy said as she stepped into the room, carrying a small tote bag with her, that unidentified feeling the only thing within her at the moment. She also seemed to be walking differently as she shut the door behind her, less tired, more confident and slightly jerky. It almost reminded me of how those Japanese ghosts would move in horror films. “Perfect for a convention like this one. Obviously that isn’t its real name, but you have to experience it to learn it.”

“Sandy?” I asked, looking at the person who had been helpful to my sister and I.

“Faith. Wouldn’t you like to get this power? To overcome your greatest fear?” Sandy smiled at me, and we locked eyes. I… couldn’t look away. Black smoke started pouring out from behind Sandy’s body, and for some reason I wasn’t being sucked into a soulgaze. “You will overcome your fear...” Sandy’s voice echoed in the darkness as she pulled a book from the tote and flipped it open.

“ _I guarantee it.”_


	28. Chapter Twenty-Seven

I couldn’t believe this was happening. Sandy. Our friend Sandy, who had helped us out when we needed it, Sandra Marling, who had been selling my enchanted metalwork on the internet, was… attacking me. It made no sense. It couldn’t have just been a setup for whatever this was. There was no way. Molly and I would have felt it, her interest, her potential betrayal. This was her _baby_ ; she’d been working on this convention for over a year. Was it really all for this? No. This wasn’t like Cecelia’s betrayal. That had come out of left field, sure, but this felt different. Something was wrong with this. It wasn’t just because I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her own.

No soulgaze though. Sandy practically floated level with my eyes, book wide open as she stared into them, but there was absolutely no soulgaze. Empty  _night_ , there should have been a soulgaze. I knew I’d felt the tug before. What was different now? Why was it different now? Could it have had something to do with the dark tendrils coming out of her? Probably… God, I needed to look away… to prevent whatever it was she was after, and as I thought  _that_ , the tendrils slammed into me, passing through into my body. I raced to bolster my shields. 

I could feel them… pressing at me, pushing at my defenses, tearing at them, ripping at them… It already felt like I’d been doing this for hours and it couldn’t have been even a minute. It  _hurt_ each time a tendril pushed at my mind, slashing and bashing against my mental shields, but I couldn’t even move my body. I couldn’t get myself away, out of their reach.

“No! Fai!” Molly ran toward me from the rows of chairs that I was next to. She pulled at my hand, but my body wouldn’t budge, and I couldn’t even talk to her, to try and get her to run. I wanted her to run. Get Lara. Get Thomas. Get Harry; get whoever. I didn’t think we were prepared for this. Not this. “No! Sandy, leave her alone! Let her go! I don’t want to hurt you or her. Let her go! Take me instead if you must, but let her go!”

_No!_ I wasn’t even sure Molly would get that, but I sent it along the link between us. She mattered. I was the one who made everything worse. Without me there, Molly would have been able to attack. Molly could have stopped this if I weren’t here. She would have had better training without me to hold her back. Drew wouldn’t have lost his arm. Cecelia would probably still be alive. God, most of the people who got hurt last night would have probably still been alive. Either I absolutely didn’t matter, or I made things worse. God, if all I did was make things worse, if all I did was change things and make them worse, I shouldn’t exist. By existing, by acting, by doing anything… anything at all… I made things worse.

I reinforced my shields again, building over the hole the tendril pierced in it, but the damage had been done. It knew a place to attack.

“Sandy, I’m really sorry about this...” Drew ran forward toward Sandy. I could see what he was doing, moving between us to break our gaze with his body. However, somehow Sandy was prepared. The moment he stepped between us, the black tendrils wrapped around him and threw him to the side, knocking over several chairs with a crash. He cried out in pain, but I heard him climbing to his feet. “Let her go, Sandy… or whoever you are… Let her go...”

“She’s going to face her fear.” Sandy cocked her head slightly, her gaze never wavering as another wave of tendrils slammed into my body, and a scream choked itself in my throat. The pain had nearly forced my shields down with the surprise, but I couldn’t… I couldn’t let it win. Without ever looking away from me, I got the feeling that whatever was doing this somehow was simultaneously looking at my friend and my sister as well. “Don’t worry. You’ll get your own turns, soon enough.”

Drew charged her again, this time in a lineman’s blitz, rushing her with his shoulder. Molly, by contrast, I could feel focusing her will. Magic. No. The two of them needed to run. If this managed to… No, I couldn’t. I couldn’t let them get hurt because of me. I needed to beat this. I needed to face the blackness.

The tendrils slammed into me again, stripping another layer from my shields, and as I raced to reinforce them, I heard a sound akin to chuckling in my mind. No. I couldn’t let it. Couldn’t let it see anything. Couldn’t let it hurt my family… my friends… I couldn’t be responsible for this. I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. I didn’t want it. I didn’t want to be the one who had to know. How things would turn out, how things were. I didn’t want to know that I wasn’t supposed to be here!

I didn’t want to be unimportant, but Hell’s bells, I  _was_ . I didn’t matter. My family mattered. My friends mattered, but all I mattered for was making things worse for them. All I did was make things worse. God, I didn’t want to make things worse. I wanted to make them  _better_ . I wanted to belong. I wanted to know that I belonged. I wanted good things for my family and friends, and I didn’t want to be the reason that bad things happened to them.

“ _Fukukaze!_ ” Molly let go of my arm and pulled out a glowing green wand, directing a burst of wind to send a chair at Sandy at the same time as Drew’s charge, but the excess tendrils grabbed both the chair and Drew, throwing them to the side. After discarding their payload, they lashed out toward me, slamming into my forehead. I let out another gasp of pain, but I could feel Molly attempting to connect with me. She’d switched hands for her wand, placing her right hand on my shoulder so she could help bolster my shields. 

_**Room only for one, little girl. Oh… such fears….** _

Molly! No, it needed to leave her alone. She couldn’t… She mattered more than I did. I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her. Not when it could happen to me instead. Not when I could… Not when I could… God, I needed to prevent it. I needed to force this out.

“Let… her… go!” I could see Drew only out of the corner of my eye. He held his prosthetic up to his real arm, panting as a bit of blood dribbled down his face. I could see him tensing up to do something again, but Molly waved her wand with an effort of will. “What the hell, Molly?”

“Drew, you can’t get close!” Molly called out. God, why couldn’t I stop this? Why did I have to be so weak to let this happen? To let Sandy… to not realize what was happening to her? Why hadn’t I remembered? Had this even happened the original time? “You could get hurt worse, and even if you don’t, she could hurt Fai...”

“She’s already hurting her!” Drew’s shrill call sounded wrong on his baritone voice, but I couldn’t let that distract me. I needed to force that presence out. I needed… I needed it out, but my shields were barely tatters at this point. Even if I could force it out… I’d have paper versus something that licked like flames.

_**Oh yes… your fears, child… You fear much… Things that have passed… things that are yet to come… Such wonder… such terror…** _

Get it out. I needed to get it out, get it gone. I didn’t know what it was… I needed it… gone. Out. It could hurt my sister… my friend… my  _ friends… _ it didn’t matter if I got hurt. It didn’t matter… I didn’t matter, and my not mattering  _ scared _ me. Because I liked living, but if it came down to it, Molly needed to more than me. Dresden needed to more than me. Drew needed to more than me, but I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to die, but I didn’t want their deaths to be my fault. God, I couldn’t face anything if it was my fault. I was more afraid of their deaths than my own, of  _ causing _ their deaths. 

I think I cried out in pain once more as what remained of my shields  _ shattered _ , and my heartbeat sped up. I could hear it… hear it rummaging through my mind. I couldn’t… I couldn’t even hear my sister or Drew anymore. I  _ couldn’t feel my sister _ anymore. Where was she? Why couldn’t… why couldn’t I see her? Did she go to get Harry? Harry could save us. He’d save us. He was the best person for it.

_**Oh, this is just** _ _ **perfect** _ _ **. Little child, repressing such wonder. Your fear, mortal… shall give birth to new life…** _

_ No. Nonononono. Get it out. Get it out. Not. It. I want. My fault. Stars and stones, get it out! Leave me be, no. You can’t.  _ I didn’t want it. I didn’t want to be responsible. I didn’t want them to be hurt. To be changed, to be…  _ Take me. Leave them alone! You can’t _ . I wouldn’t let it… I couldn’t let it.

“...” A voice, I couldn’t even hear it, understand it… I couldn’t feel anything but this all-encompassing presence that weighed on me, burning out even the feel of the rest of the convention center. The  _ fear _ .  _ My _ fear. It rummaged and dug… it made my fears… it knew them. Whatever this was…. I convulsed as black tendrils spiked out the back of my body. 

“…!” The voice again… a different one, baritone… I knew it. I knew who it was, but I couldn’t… nothing was there but the presence. The blackness, and what it was forming… Memories. It looked at my  _ memories _ . All of them, each and every single blasted one of them… and it knew. I could feel it gathering ectoplasm, making… something… I could see it in my mind… forming… shaping… the black tendrils warped around the air, forming its form, piece by piece. 

The Thing the presence formed was  _ huge _ . It stood taller and broader than any of the doors in the convention center. Despite its more or less humanoid appearance, its proportions were all wrong. The arms were too long, and the legs were long, crooked and thick like tree trunks. The Thing was covered in some sort of dark fur… or maybe it was scales… or some unholy fusion between the two. Unnatural, and the presence knew it. It didn’t have a real head, just a lump of scaled flesh sitting atop its torso, but it did have a face. Its eyes were sunken and empty of any sort of ball, yet they glowed, lit with violet flames. Its maw opened, revealing way too many yellow, sharp and serrated teeth.

_**Wherever you may wander, I am ever Behind you.** _

I knew… I knew the form that the presence had took. I knew what it was, and as the presence pushed itself completely through me, I fell like a puppet with its strings cut. It had… It was… God, was it… No shields. I had no shields, and now that the presence wasn’t blocking… I could feel  _ everyone _ in the hotel… and further. The sea was there, and my sister, bless her, appeared at my side, offering me a lifeline. Unfortunately, I had to lean on it a little much… since we didn’t have much time.

“Fai...” I could feel her again. Feel my sister. She needed to get gone. Get gone before it… I could feel the presence still behind me, weighing upon me. Surely my sister could feel it as well.

“Run, Moll… Take Drew and run...” I shivered. I didn’t know where Drew was… I could barely pick him out among the background noise of the con, but Molly could filter, could act as a sort of shield for my shield. He had to still be in the room with us, but I could feel him hurting.

“ _ **Oh yes...** _ _ ”  _ It was actually speaking out loud, in an eerily familiar British accent. 

“Now, Molly!” I hissed out to my sister.

“What is it?  _ Where _ is it?” Molly looked around, and I did too, though I still felt the presence. “There’s nothing…”

“It’s there… God help us, it’s there...” I shuddered. “It’s a hunter of the shadows… the captain of the Lord of Slowest Terror...”

“So it’s weak then?” Drew’s sudden question made me jump. My empathy… I hadn’t felt him approach… I was out of whack… because… everything.

Dark chuckling echoed out as Molly and I spun around. Drew’s shirt was matted to his chest with the bloodstains. God… it had been my fault. This thing.

“No...” I shook my head. “This thing is far from weak...”

“ _ **Can you amuse me, children?** _ ” the voice purred its question. I consciously knew it wasn’t the actual version of the thing. I knew that this… this monster… had simply taken a form similar… 

“We need Harry,” I hissed out. “We can’t…. I can’t...”

“ _ What _ is it?” Molly asked, her knuckles white around her wand. I could feel her fear too, but it was less than mine and for different reasons. She was scared for  _ me _ .

I shivered again, trying to get my heart rate under control. I didn’t know if it was possible to beat this thing, especially if we couldn’t see it. I knew it was there, as I still felt its presence. “He Who Walks—”

“ _ **Behind.** _ ” At the sound of its voice, Molly and I twitched our left hands, bringing up our magical shields, just in time. Three ripples slashed along our shields, and for a split-second, out of the corner of my eye, I could make it out, exactly as my mind’s eye had pictured. Empty  _ night _ .

“It’s not really it, I know that...” I said, trembling with my shield up. “We need Harry… It’s…”

Drew grabbed a chair and swung at the space the Thing had been, the chair clearly swishing harmlessly through. “Dresden’s not here right now. We are.”

“We need to run!” I tried to reach for Drew, but he was too far out of reach. I needed to move closer. I needed to move away from the thing. Sandy could be dealt with later. If we couldn’t survive here... “We can’t beat it. It’s… It’s a Walker...”

“Then it can walk its ass out of here,” Drew said with a snarl, swinging again at the air. It wasn’t any use. He couldn’t see it… couldn’t see where it was coming from. The supernatural assassin had all the advantage. We couldn’t even see it. Well… there  _ was _ a way to… but I didn’t want… Molly and I didn’t want to expose ourselves that way. I vaguely remembered another way… but it wasn’t clear...

“ _ **Useless mortal,** _ ” the Creature purred out. The air shifted, the unnatural feeling permeating the room moved slightly. “ _ **Your efforts will be in vain.** _ ”

“Drew!” Molly and I called out in unison, running toward him so we could shield his unprotected self, but we were just out of reach. My friend buckled forward, his shirt tearing as claws ran down his back. He spun around, swinging the chair and releasing it. This time, it didn’t simply pass through the air. The chair slammed into  _ something _ , and the outline of the Creature appeared. Drew didn’t give the Walker time to do anything more as he got his feet under him and rushed it. He slammed his prosthetic arm into the beast like the cracking of a whip, and wisps of steam rushed off of the metallic pieces.

In response, the Walker roared, exposing its many teeth, and it wrapped a hand around my friend’s waist, lifting him off the ground with ease. No. God no.

“Drew! Let him go… please let him go!” I couldn’t… It couldn’t happen again. I couldn’t lose him again.

“ _ **Oh yes, Mortal… your fear...** _ ” The Walker sneered visibly before fading from view, still holding Drew, and then my friend’s body slammed into the floor. Then it lifted up and slammed into the floor again, even as he flailed, trying to get another hit with his prosthetic. Why was I just letting this happen? Why couldn’t I do anything? God, this was all my fault.

Another slam. Damnit, Faith. Do  _ something _ . Anything. My fault. It was my fault. This was happening again, and it was my fault just like before. 

“Drew!” I screamed out. No.. I couldn’t… Dresden could. Dresden  _ did,  _ but I was just weak little Faith Carpenter unable to do anything as someone she cared about got hurt. No… Another slam happened, and Drew fell limp, tossed to the side like trash.

“ _ **Pitiful.** _ ” The Thing scoffed. It had done  _ that _ to Drew and it scoffed. I couldn’t act. I wasn’t able to stop it… and it had hurt my friend. My fault. I let it frighten me. I let it… I  _ let _ it. It wasn’t even the real thing. “ _ **Oh, the doe thinks that she can act? The girl who shouldn’t exist dares to think she has the right to do anything? Laughable.** _ ”

I clenched my hands into fists. Both times. Drew was hurt, maybe dead. It had happened  _ again _ , and it was my fault. Sandy now… Cecelia then… they got hurt… My fault. They were harmed by whatever this was… my fault. My mess. My trouble. My problem that needed fixing.

Molly shook her head, placing a hand on my shoulder. I smiled at the reassurance.  _ Our _ problem.

The memory clicked into place as we slammed our hands into the ground. With an effort of will, we cried out “ _ Utseiru! _ ”

Spiraling out of our hands along the floor of the room was our way of seeing this creature, an illusory coating of highly reflective ice. We knew, from the memory, that while it could hide from the naked eye, its reflection still showed normally, unlike some vampires.

“ _ **Clever girls,** _ ” the creature said, now clearly visible through its reflected image. We sneered in return, putting on a brave face. The thing still frightened us, but we needed to beat it. For Drew’s sake. So it was for his sake that we started preparing our next spell, even as the creature moved toward us.

Well, actually spells would be more accurate. Lightning arced up and down the arms of one of us while the other gathered the wind necessary to hold it into place. With a gesture of hands and flick of the wrist, we said simultaneously, “ _ Fukukaze/Fulminara! _ ”

Wind buffeted the charging faux-walker, and lightning struck true. The resultant thunderclap pushed the Walker back through the chairs, and we prepared to cast again as its body flickered into view above the illusion, leaking ectoplasm. That raised our hopes. We could beat it. It was possible.

“ _ **Not good enough, children** _ .” The Walker tossed two chairs at us and then disappeared from view, even its reflection, and we heard the rush of wind. We separated enough to dodge the chairs, but the Walker reappeared as we turned around. It struck us as we turned, sending us flying. We landed in a heap in front of the stage, but we pushed through the pain, climbing to our feet. Drew didn’t have the defenses we did. The blows had stung, but they hadn’t dug into our flesh. 

We channeled that pain, our anguish, and our anger, and we aimed our hands. An effort of angry will went into this, and we growled out our spell. “ _ Sessakufuu. _ ”

Cutting wind, razor sharp, slammed into the Walker, tearing at its flesh, forcing it to appear in the maelstrom. Hot ectoplasm dripped down, landing on the ground with a hiss, like water landing on a hot stove. We held the wind for a while, attempting to tear the thing apart, but it only got so wounded. It was like it was regenerating, pulling more ectoplasm into its form as it got hurt.

It chuckled again, a dark and evil sound. “ _ **Fear. Fear never dies.** _ ” The creature stalked closer to us, even through our cutting wind. Even as its flesh was being scoured from its body, it moved closer. “ _ **Your fears especially. Perhaps I shall help you live through them. I shall hunting those you protect. Picking each of them off… one… by… one… And it will be all your fault.** _ ”

It was  _ toying  _ with us. Nothing we did had any sort of lasting effect on it. We couldn’t destroy its body fast enough for it to not regenerate the damage, and now it was threatening the jawas? Our family? No. We couldn’t let that happen. We needed to find a way to stop it. Our eyes scanned the room, over Drew’s fallen form… he’d managed to do what we’d been doing, damage it, but damage wasn’t enough. No. Our eyes went to Sandy, hovering toward the back of the room with the black aura surrounding her, tendrils painting their way around the room. Our tattoos itched as we looked to her, and we pursed our lips. There was no way that it was that simple.

The creature disappeared again, out of our wind, but this time we were ready. Dropping the wind spell, we slammed our left hands behind us and said, “ _ Fusegi! _ ” Our shields popped up behind us, blocking the double-body blow that was incoming. We pirouetted around to face its reflection, leveling our right hand implements. “ _ Ikoru _ .”

An invisible wave of force slammed into the creature. It might not have been on par with Harry’s force spell, but we managed to blast it off the ground and into the table on the stage. Using the moment, we ran across the room toward where Sandy still floated.

“You are facing your fears, good,” Sandy said, her voice still carrying that odd lilt. The black aura surrounding her threatened to slam into us again, but we were ready now. The book in her hands flipped through the pages, back and forth, as if a wind were blowing it. Yeah. There was no other way we could do this. Hopefully we wouldn’t have what happened to Drew happen to us, but the presence was clearly in the Walker, despite the unnatural feeling still within Sandy.

We placed a hand on each of Sandy’s shoulders and gripped. We shoved her down toward the ground so that she wouldn’t fall when this spell went off. We weren’t entirely certain that this was the right thing to do, but it seemed necessary. From how we understood it, what we were about to do wasn’t exactly against the Laws, but it skirted the edge a little. We unleashed some of our Will into Sandy.

“ _ **Children! Your fight with me isn’t over!** _ ” Let it run toward us. We didn’t need much more time. It even sounded agitated at what we were doing, meaning we were on the right track.

“ _ Neru _ .” A sleep spell. We were going to end this fight with a sleep spell. We pushed the energy into our friend, trying to overwhelm the foreign presence within her. If we were anywhere close to right, the creature  _ needed _ her. Without her awake, the creature would fade. Would leave. If we were wrong, we were dead.

“ _ **Leave her be, mortals. Face me instead.** _ ”

The woman who had been our friend collapsed forward when our spell took hold fully. Her eyes closed and she started breathing normally as the black aura faded. We caught her in our arms, and we lowered her safely onto a chair.

“ _ **You haven’t won, not yet...** _ ” the creature growled, but it sounded faded, almost gone. We actually watched as its reflection faded into translucence before a puddle of ectoplasm fell to the ground above where its reflection had been. Reflexively, we shuddered. Ectoplasm, while useful, was still a bit gross in its natural gooey state.

We separated once we were sure the creature was down, and I nodded to Molly as I picked up the book, sliding it into my coat’s interior pocket. It needed to burn, just like the rest of the runes in this place. If this creature was the opening salvo of the source of fear, we couldn’t let it do anything more, not like it had done… to…

Stars and stones, Drew! I rushed over to where he laid on the ground, checking over his body. Oh God, he just couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be. Not because of me. The creature won even though we stopped it if he was dead. There he was… laying face down on the floor near some scattered chairs. His shirt was soaked through with blood on his back, sticking there, even though it had been torn nigh in half.

Drew was breathing though, and I thought I saw some movement in him.

“Oh God, Drew...” I knelt down next to my friend, taking off my gloves. I pulled at his shirt, careful of the blood on it, and Drew actually pushed himself up slightly so he could turn his head. He coughed a bit at first.

“You get him, Fai?” Drew’s voice sounded strained, but it was more than I was expecting from what had happened to him. I could feel Molly’s relief as well, even as she worked to keep both of our shields in order. God, Drew shouldn’t have even been able to talk with the damage the Walker had done.

“Yeah, we got him,” I said, lightly running my hand over Drew’s back. It was strange… but it didn’t feel like any bones were even broken… and the cuts… they were scabbing over already… I pulled away my hands at Drew’s gasp of pain. “Sorry...”

“Warn a guy next time,” Drew said, even as he moved his arms underneath him, and, while admittedly leaning more on the prosthetic, he pushed himself up to his knees.  _ How _ . “What was that thing?”

“At a guess,” I said, shivering, but I couldn’t stop staring at my friend. There was just so much blood. “Either what we were here to stop… or a precursor to it...”

“Damn,” Drew said, but he seemed to notice my staring. He shook his head. “Fai, I’m okay.”

“How?” I asked, moving closer to him. I had to check over his injuries. He’d been… “You were knocked around, slammed into the floor multiple times, and you passed out. You’re  _ bleeding _ , Drew… how are you okay?”

I ran my hands over his chest, feeling at where his injuries would be. Like his back, the cuts had already started coagulating, scabbing over. It didn’t make any sense. He’d looked so much more injured. Molly’s own confusion spiked as well. He was… He’d been hurt. I saw it.

Drew grabbed my left hand and brought it up to his head. Not even a lump, but shouldn’t there have been one? “See? I’m here. I’m okay. I’m whole… mostly.”

My eyes flicked to the prosthetic at the same time as his. “You… but….”

“Someone up there must like me,” Drew said with a smile. Was it really not as bad as it had looked? “The thing didn’t hurt me all that badly. Maybe our faith is paying off.”

He let go of my hand, and instead ran his hand through my hair, knocking off the hat that had somehow stayed on throughout this. “Drew...”

“You look better without a hat, Fai, even if it fits the character.” Drew smiled, and then he climbed to his feet. I did much the same. “So…”

“Sandy’s sleeping like a baby,” Molly said as she walked over. “But she’s going to need a paramedic to look her over. You should have one too, Drew.”

“Don’t need one,” Drew said. “But if Sandy does… we should get her one.”

“Think it’s over?” I asked. “We have the book, and we removed some key runes...”

“I don’t know,” Drew said. “Sandy was talking to someone about ruined plans earlier. It didn’t seem like this was her… so if she was influenced this much...”

“Then the other person...” Molly mused, and the two of us bit our lower lips.

“We need to find them, whoever they are,” I said, and then I looked to Sandy. “But she called Mom...”

“Yeah,” Molly said. “You’re not getting out of going back with her if she decides that’s the course of action, Fai.”

“But—”

“But nothing,” Molly said, cutting me off. “Drew, as miraculous as it is, you seem to be okay… That’s good. Do you think you could find Lara and tell her what we dealt with? Call the paramedics too?”

“Not an issue,” Drew said. “What about you two?”

“We’ll stick with Sandy until the paramedics arrive.” Molly glanced at me, and I held up four fingers. She nodded. “We’ll let Mom know that we need to talk to Harry before we leave.”

“That  _ wasn’t _ Sandy,” I said. “I think she wasn’t in control of herself. Harry’s a Warden now, and it’s his job to deal with those things. Issue is, we can’t let him know about the Venatori.”

“Just say she attacked with some weird magic,” Drew said. “And she wasn’t acting like herself. It’s close enough without giving it away.”

I nodded. “In the meantime, after you’re cleaned up, if we’re back home, you should probably get the rest of the runes dealt with if you can. Assume each drawing has one.”

Drew nodded. “Burn ‘em?”

“Burn ‘em,” Molly and I confirmed. Neither one of us knew how Drew had managed to survive, but it was a hell of a miracle. And it helped with finishing this up.

“Got it.” Drew turned toward the door.

“Oh, and Drew?” I said in a questioning tone.

“Yes, Fai?” God, my stomach had butterflies.

“We’ll talk, later…” I said, and he nodded at me with a smile before walking out of the room.

I hoped that later would actually come.


	29. Chapter Twenty-Eight

Drew must have gotten to the phone pretty quickly because Molly and I didn’t have to wait long on the paramedics. There had barely been enough time for my sister to help me reinforce my shields before they came into the room, directed by convention security. Four paramedics wheeling a gurney pushed their way into the room, looking it over; they were a mixed team of two women, two men, and they were accompanied by two uniformed officers and a thankfully familiar face, Karrin Murphy.

“What happened here?” The EMT looked to us, clearly hoping for an answer. He was a bit dispassionate, but he was focused on his work.

“She just was talking to us and then she passed out...” Molly said, flicking her fingers as she gathered power. Oh. That’s what she was doing. Drew wasn’t in the room, but where the… where the  _ thing _ had slammed Drew into the ground, there was a small pool of blood. If the EMTs or cops noticed that, it would be bad. Neither of us wanted to deal with that sort of attention  _ again _ .

“Do you know if she has any history of narcolepsy?” asked the same EMT.

“Not usually, no,” I said, letting Molly continue her spell. “She’s usually so vibrant and active.”

“Name?” The other EMTs had already prepared the gurney, moving more chairs out of the way so that they could load Sandy onto it while Murphy talked to the cops. I saw her glance our way, and she locked eyes with me for a second. She was going to want to talk with us after we dealt with the EMTs.

Giving Murphy a slight nod, I answered the paramedic. “Her name’s Sandra Marling. She’s the one who was running this convention.”

“Suppose with what happened last night, maybe it got to be too much for her,” said another of the EMTs.

“Not our job to speculate,” said the original EMT. “Have any other information about her? Birth date?”

“She was born on March 17, but I don’t know the year.” I looked to Sandy. While I knew that we’d been the ones to put her to sleep, with what was going on with her prior to that, she  _ needed _ to be away from here. Whatever was controlling her, I doubted it would be able to do so away from the things linking it to her. I hoped so, anyway. I’d have to write a note for Ivy later to see if she could check on Sandy for us, make sure she didn’t remember this. “She’s going to be alright, right?”

“I can’t say,” said the paramedic. “She’ll be given good care though. The doctors will be the main judges of that.”

I nodded, intentionally not glancing at my sister as she kept her fingers moving in a focusing pattern. The uniformed officers finished up their talk with Murphy, and they stepped out of the room, leaving just the paramedics, detective, Sandy and us. Good. Molly wouldn’t have to maintain the illusion much longer.

“Thank you,” I said to the EMTs working on Sandy as they finished buckling her to the stretcher. As much as I wanted to ride along with her, she was headed to the hospital, where there were any number of things that could break due to magic interference. “Keep her safe.”

“What about the two of you?” asked the female EMT as she stepped away from the gurney. “You look like you’re in a bit of pain.”

“Just some residuals from last night,” I said, lying a little. The would-be Walker’s blows had hurt significantly, but we weren’t bleeding, at least not the way Drew had been. My coat wasn’t enchanted the way Harry’s was, but the Walker had to have been  _ playing _ with us. “I was… in the room when the guy...”

“Ah, right.” The female paramedic shook her head. “Some people… We’ll get your friend to the hospital. Don’t worry.”

Molly and I nodded, stepping to the side as they wheeled Sandy out of the room. Lieutenant Murphy waited until the door was shut behind the paramedics before she came over to us.

“You can drop the spell now, Molly,” Murphy said. “And you can tell me what actually happened and why you’re hiding blood on the floor.”

Molly stiffened, but she did stop the flow of energy to the spell. The illusion faded, revealing the puddle of blood that had come out of Drew when the Walker-alike had hurt him. “It’s not—”

“—Sandy’s blood,” I said, looking to Murphy. “It’s Drew’s, but he didn’t actually bleed a whole lot.”

“So, there was another attack in here?” Murphy asked. “That doesn’t make sense. Dresden didn’t think that anything would happen until after sunset.”

“Well, it’s not like they can’t attack in the sunlight,” I said. “It’s just that whatever they are, creatures of the Nevernever or no, they’d be stronger in the dark. Most monsters are.”

“So you’re saying that you got attacked with Miss Marling in here?” Murphy crossed her arms, and she raised a golden eyebrow. “And Warren too? Where is he anyway?”

“He wasn’t all that hurt,” I said, glancing at the blood on the floor. I really didn’t have an explanation for why he wasn’t all that hurt other than I had to have been freaking out too much. “He got really lucky. Most of his cuts were superficial and had clotted by the time we managed to get the attack stopped. He’s the one that called the paramedics, and he went to get cleaned up.”

“Okay, so what attacked you then?” Murphy asked. “More movie monsters?”

“Not… exactly...” Molly said, trailing off. “Whatever it was, it was like the Harry Potter interpretation of a boggart. It focused on Fai, and it managed to get her deepest fear out of her.”

“Not quite as simple as that, though,” I said, and then Molly and I simultaneously glanced toward the door. A familiar presence tickled at the edge of our senses, and then another appeared as well. A smile made its way onto my face, and I knew my sister was doing the same. Both of these presences, despite our earlier protests, were welcome ones.

“Someone coming?” Murphy asked, and the two of us nodded simultaneously. We felt Murphy’s emotions go from considering to hopeful to a sort of realization. “Your mother and your lawyer are on their way down now.”

“Yeah, how’d you guess?” I wasn’t sure if I said that or Molly did, but the both of us were curious. Of course, we might have just been a bit obvious.

“It’s like I’m a detective,” Murphy said with a slightly smug smile. “You did ask for a lawyer earlier, and I’m pretty sure that your mother knows at least one.”

“You can say that again,” I murmured as our mother’s voice started raising from outside the door. She wasn’t exactly upset, but Mom had some worry flowing through her. My eyes flicked to my sister, and I quirked my lips.  _ Wonder who Mom brought. _

_ Danny’s probably watching the jawas. So she probably just got Father Forthill. _ Molly wrapped an arm around me and glanced to Murphy. “There any way we can get her in here faster? I think they might be trying to stop her.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Murphy walked over to the door and opened it. She waved her hand outside the door and stepped back inside, moving out of the way as the door opened further.

First through the door was our mother, hair tied back in a loose ponytail and wearing jeans, a knit tank top and a nice cotton blue blouse. When she saw the two of us, she ran over and wrapped her arms around Molly first, and then after that hug, she moved to me, pulling me close. I savored the hug for a minute before Mom pulled back slightly, and she ran a hand along my face.

Crap. I had been crying, hadn’t I?

“Faith, Molly, what happened?” Mom’s voice was calm, though her emotions were tumultuous, peaking with worry and concern. She looked to my face again, and as I looked down, she pulled me tighter to herself. The love I felt from her at that moment, the comfort she gave off, it overpowered every other emotion she was feeling, and I couldn’t help but be glad to be in her embrace. Molly joined the hug from the side for a few seconds before she backed off.

“It wasn’t pretty, Mom,” Molly said. “Sandy was being… well, influenced by that boggart thing that I mentioned to Lieutenant Murphy, and then...”

She trailed off, and I could feel her eyes on me. I extricated myself from Mom’s grasp just as another person joined us in the hall.

He was an older man, shorter than Mom, Molly and I but taller than Lieutenant Murphy. The sparse remains of his hair were grey and trimmed neatly, but barely a fringe remained around his head. His eyes reminded one of robin’s eggs, and his spectacles sat upon his nose comfortably. He was a bit heavyset and wore black slacks and a black shirt. The white square of his clerical collar clearly stood out against the black of the shirt, and he smiled when he saw everyone.

“Father Forthill,” I said politely, giving him a nod. “It’s good to see you. Is there anyone else that’s going to come in and interrupt the explanation, or do you think we’re good?”

Not that Molly or I really needed to ask that. We knew that Forthill was the last one. Harry was probably up in his room, but we did need to see him, let him know that Sandy was affected by mind control.

“I believe that I’m the last,” Father Forthill said, looking at my sister and I. “It is good to see the two of you again.”

“We’ve been going to St. Jude’s,” I said in way of explanation for why we hadn’t been to his Mass in a while. Neither Molly nor myself had given up on our faith. “But, that’s not exactly the explanation here...”

“No, it isn’t,” Mom said. “Faith Jessica Samantha Carpenter, what exactly happened?”

“She was being mind controlled,” I said, gesturing vaguely at the door. “Sandy was. Partially by the  _ thing _ , but we’re pretty sure that it was someone else. The  _ thing _ , the boggart thing… it’s different from what attacked last night, but it’s similar enough that someone was probably trying to use them as a feint. It  _ used me _ .”

“Played on Fai’s fear,” Molly said, glancing to Mom and then Murphy. “It brought something physical that Fai’s had nightmares of for the longest time. That face in the dark, Mom. Only… this… we could only see it when it was reflected.”

Mom nodded in understanding. There was no way she’d forgotten  _ those _ nightmares. I’d needed her comfort often enough when I was little.

“We stopped it,” I said. “And got it out from Sandy, we think. She just needs to be kept away from here in case whoever got it in her in the first place decides they want to try again.”

“Wait, so you think it’s a summoner?” Murphy asked. “They aren’t just coming on their own?”

_ Should we try to pass this off as Harry’s thing? _ I asked Molly. 

_ Are _ _ the phages being summoned? It might be a good way to have him finding his thing, and if the guy who mind controlled Sandy with this is in the middle of it, maybe we can kill two birds with one stone without revealing anything we shouldn’t. _

I shrugged. I honestly couldn’t remember what the source of the phages was, but “Harry’s got more resources than we do.” Bob alone made his resources better, honestly. “But a summoner makes some sense to me.”

“Harry was puzzling over what to do for that,” Murphy said, her own determination to see this thing solved rising in her. “I told him that I’d check out Pell’s theater, but I noted the paramedics heading this way.”

“We should let him know,” Molly said, looking to Mom and Father Forthill. “If he’s still puzzling over it, it might take him too long and more people could get hurt or worse.”

“Fine,” Mom said. “After you talk to the wizard, we’re heading home. Father Forthill has agreed to act as our attorney if the police try to stop you again.”

“We didn’t do anything,” I said. Well, we didn’t tell the whole truth about the boggart thing, but we weren’t even really sure it was what we were looking into for the Venatori. That was the major thing we kept from our family because we didn’t want to have them forced into it the way we were.

“I know.” Mom smiled. “It was whatever these things are that Mister Dresden will deal with.”

“Wasn’t Nelson either,” Molly said, and Mom just gave her a look that reminded us about how much Molly’s boyfriend wasn’t approved of, even after he kicked his heroin habit.

Father Forthill held up his hand to forestall anything forthcoming from our mother. “Perhaps we should see Harry and give him the update. Lieutenant Murphy, where is he?”

“He’s in a room that he reserved for the night,” Murphy said, and then she gave us his room number. “It’s not that far up, though you might have to take the stairs. The elevators are out of order for  _ some reason _ .”

The way she’d said that combined with the burst of amused annoyance meant that Harry’d stopped them. Of course, stairs were okay to use.

“Thank you, Murphy,” Molly and I said in unison. I continued after that. “We should probably get up there soon then. Let him know.”

Murphy nodded. “No problem. Stay safe, all of you.”

“You too..” About a minute after she left the room, the four of us followed her out.

Mom wasn’t letting us out of her sight as we made it to the stairs. Dresden’s room was on the fifth floor, and it took us maybe five minutes to get up the stairs and that was only because we had a few people in the way that we had to ask to move. Once we got to Harry’s floor, it took only a few seconds to make it to his door. Mom and Father Forthill stood to the side as I let Molly knock on the door. While I doubted that we’d see anything Mom would kill Dresden for letting us see, it’d be better if Molly got the chance.

Of course, as the door opened, Harry must have thought we were someone else. After all, he said, “That was pretty fast. Thought you were going to be a bit longer Murph—wait, you’re...”

“Hey Harry,” Molly said, and I echoed her a second later. “We need a quick talk.”

“Aren’t the two of you waiting on your mom?” Harry asked, still in the doorway.

“She’s out here with us,” I said, and I simultaneously felt Harry’s apprehension rise while Mom’s annoyance grew. I really couldn’t figure out why Mom still had some issue with Harry. Before we’d left town, Harry had been training us for a year and a half.

“Mister Dresden,” Mom said in a neutral tone. “My daughters were attacked while they waited for me.”

Harry’s eyes narrowed, and he looked from my sister to me. We probably were a little more rumpled than when he last saw us, and a spark of guilt rose within him. He thought we’d be safe in there as we waited. “What happened? Was it another movie monster?”

I shook my head. “Worse. Someone was controlling Sandy.”

“Controlling?” Harry asked, and then he stepped to the side. “Come on in, let’s get the full story.”

We entered his hotel room as a group, and Molly nudged me, pointing out the circle that Harry had used white sand to place on the ground. I nodded. Neither one of us envied whatever cleaning ladies that would have clean up after him. He gestured toward one of the beds, and Molly and I took a seat. Mom stood near us while Father Forthill leaned on the wall. Harry took a seat in a chair, and sitting on the desk in the corner was a bleached white skull. Bob.

“So, you said Sandy was being controlled, you mean Sandra Marling, right?” Harry asked.

I nodded. “Not sure who, but she wasn’t acting like herself.”

“And then she sicced something like a Harry Potter boggart on Fai,” Molly said. “It turned into something… just… wrong.”

“We dealt with it,” I said, looking to my mentor but avoiding his eyes. “Drew, Molly and I dealt with it, and we got Sandy unconscious and headed to a hospital. But we wanted to let you know that whoever controlled her is still out there, and he or she might be the one responsible for the phobophages.”

“Came to the conclusion they were summoned too, eh?” Harry said, pride welling up within him. “Don’t worry so much about the summoner. I’ve got a way to deal with him. When he tries tonight, he’s going to get a taste of his own medicine.”

My eyes flicked to the skull on the desk, and Harry nodded slightly. Bob helped with this then, good. Harry was great with thaumaturgy, but he was even better when the Spirit of Intellect helped. Whatever Harry was planning, it involved quite a bit.

“Good,” Molly said. “Whoever brought these things deserves whatever they get. Seeing Sandy like that… she’s not normally that way.”

I nodded. While I wasn’t completely certain the summoner and the mind controller were the same person, the runes probably meant that they were close enough. Drew would probably let Lara know that we handled our job, and I’d write a note to Ivy. If we were wrong, there’d probably be some sort of communication to let us know. “Harry, if there’s anything we can do to help...”

“Go with your mom, Grasshoppers, be safe.”

“For once, I agree with Mister Dresden,” Mom said. “Especially with the police having you as people of interest and what you just fought.”

“Right,” Molly said, grabbing my hand and pulling me to my feet. “Good luck, Harry. We’ll see you again soon.”

“Thanks,” Harry said. “We’ll talk properly when this is finished.”

“Yeah.” I started toward the door. “See you then.”

Harry’d get his job done and make sure that the summoner got punished while my sister and I went home to be with our family. The job was nearly finished, and we could finally relax.

So why exactly did I feel like I was missing something huge?


	30. Chapter Twenty-Nine

The moment that Molly and I stepped through the front door of our childhood home, we each got to deal with a flying jawa. I stepped to the side, catching mine by her ankle before she could fly into the door and lifted the tow-headed eight-year-old off the ground, tickling Amanda’s exposed belly. Molly had caught Hope and swung her over her shoulder before pulling her into a hug. Giggles erupted from our captured prey. I swung Amanda around to be in a similar position to Hope, but of course, she was a bit bigger. Still, refusing to show weakness, I smiled.

“Girls, put your sisters on the ground,” Mom said, her tone brooking no argument despite the amusement we felt wafting off her. “You do need to get all the way inside first.” She then raised her voice so it could clearly be heard from the living room. “And I hope the television is off before you get into the living room. We don’t want to risk it being broken.”

I laughed, placing Amanda on the ground, and my sister tugged at my coat a bit. I had to carefully pull it closed so that she couldn’t get at the interior pocket. I didn’t want any of my siblings to get their hands on the book I’d taken off Sandy, and Molly and I needed to be somewhere safe to burn it.

“Alright, down you go, Hobbit.” Molly lowered our youngest sister to the floor, and we made our way to the living room where… wow, that really was everyone else. Daniel, Matthew, Harry, and Alicia were in there, sitting in various positions on the couches and chairs, but the sixty inch flat screen that Daddy had bought was turned off and the cabinet containing it was closed tight. If I wasn’t mistaken, its surge protector was probably also turned off, if only to make sure that Molly and I didn’t accidentally fry it.

“So, I know I asked last night,” Daniel said, staring at me. “But has Halloween come early this year?”

“Please, Danny, you’ve seen me in other cosplays,” I said with a smile. “Personally, I’m kind of glad how this one turned out. Of course, I wouldn’t mind washing this dye out of my hair. I just look  _ weird _ with black hair.”

“I, on the other hand, look great with my hair,’ Molly said, prompting a spike of annoyance from Mom. She always was a bit more conservative when it came to our clothing and other fashion choices, even if she did help me with my costuming. Everything I knew about that came from her.

“So, what character are you supposed to be?” Matthew asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Alicia asked, peeking up from her book and adjusting her glasses. “She’s the No-Life Queen. It looks great, Faith.”

I smiled and slipped the sunglasses on my face, triggering the glamour enchantment I’d built into them, allowing the illusory fangs to drop down. “Thank you, Alicia. I’m glad you like it.”

A collective bit of awe passed through our younger siblings, though some of them tried to hide it. Harry, on the other hand, had a little bit of fear, and that had me taking the glasses and hat off and tossing them into the chair. I didn’t want to be scaring my little brother.

Molly went and scooped him into a hug. “It’s okay, Harry. It was fake. Fai’s not really a vampire.”

“No, I’m not, see?” I smiled, showing my perfectly human smile.

“But fangs,” Harry said, his fear abating a little. “FaithMolly, you shouldn’t have fangs, you’re my sisters, not vampires.”

“It was magic to pretend, Harry,” I said, pushing reassurance out toward him, something that I was pretty sure he wasn’t quite able to catch, but it colored my tone. “Like on Halloween.”

“Ah,” Harry said with primitive understanding growing within him. “Did you get candy?”

Molly shook her head. “Not this time, but we’ll get some next time, I’m sure.”

“You should have gotten candy. It’s not Halloween without candy.” Harry pouted, and I couldn’t help but smile. Molly took this as a cue and passed him off to me. As soon as she did, I hugged the four-year-old and plopped him down next to Alicia on the love seat nearby. “There you go. Maybe I can make you a nice little costume for this year. What do you think?”

“Maybe,” Harry allowed, and then he pointed at me with his right hand. “But no fangs!”

“What do you want to be then?” Alicia asked, her lips tugging upward. Yeah. I don’t think that a single one of us wasn’t smiling. I had missed this.

“Batman!” Yep. He was definitely  _ my _ little brother.

“All right,” Mom said, walking over to the center of the room. Love and amusement flowed off her, but a hint of determination and worry sat underneath. “Daniel, Matthew, if you wouldn’t mind taking everyone out back, I’d like to have a talk with your older sisters.”

Although they all wanted to stick around, except maybe Daniel, our brothers managed to herd the jawas out of the living room. Mom gestured to the couch across from the television, and Molly and I sat down next to each other, our hands lightly touching. The two of us had some idea of what Mom probably wanted to talk about, but we knew that we couldn’t tell her everything, even if she wanted.

“So,” Mom said, pulling over the ottoman. She sat down on it, looking briefly into each of our eyes. “I know that regardless of what the police think is  _ actually _ happening, unless Special Investigations is leading the case, they don’t have a clue. I also know that the two of you came dangerously close to being arrested today.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think we did. If they’d actually arrested us, we’d probably have a good case for wrongful arrest and wrongful detention, but I’m pretty sure we weren’t who they were really after.”

“Of course, that doesn’t really matter,” Molly said. “They won’t be able to catch the real killer or killers. They’re not human.”

“That’s not the point,” Mom said, her worry coming through clearly now. “Why is it that I had to hear about the incident you experienced from a news report rather than a phone call from you?”

That… was a good question. Maybe we should have called Mom last night, but… things had been so hectic after the Reaper’s attack. Then Jason attacked, and then we just wanted to go home and sleep. It had been a long night, and I had been… well, I still was hurt a bit.

“Fai protected who she could during the Reaper’s attack,” Molly said. “I’d been showing Harry around, where the crime scene that Nelson got arrested at was. Then I had to go grab something from the storage areas for one of the other staff.”

“I’d wondered why you hadn’t come in with Harry,” I murmured. Despite sharing a lot when we were together, it wasn’t perfect memory sharing or anything. If we didn’t think about it while together, the memories wouldn’t come up.

“The Reaper?” Mom asked, a little confused but definitely still worried. “Like the slasher movie character?”

I nodded. “Or something that looked and felt a lot like him.”

“Is he the one that hurt you?”

“Today it was that boggart thing, actually,” Molly said. “It got a couple good hits in before we stopped it.”

“But last night,” I shivered. “I didn’t get it as bad as some people. Three people died, Momma. And… I felt them slip away, their fear in their last moments. I felt their remnants linger for a few seconds before…” Hell’s bells. “Had to keep Rosie, Drea and Ken safe though… had to.”

Molly slipped her arm around my back as Mom’s emotions shifted more toward the sympathetic spectrum. I sniffled once, and brought a hand up to wipe away some tears that had started to fall.

“The cops… they’d tried to make it about last night for Fai,” Molly said. “To blame Fai for how the Reaper was costumed.”

“What?” Mom exclaimed, a bit of anger seeping into the question. “Okay, that’s something that we need to tell Father Forthill when we go by the church later. If the police are trying to tie you to this because you’re good at  _ costuming _ , then there’s something seriously wrong.”

“They still think it’s Nelson,” I said. “They think that because Molly’s—”

“Dating that boy?” Mom asked, eyebrow raised. “Molly, you know your father and I don’t approve of him.”

“He’s responsible, kind and brave,” Molly said, but I could tell her heart wasn’t entirely in it. “And he’s the same age as Drew, and you don’t have any problem with Faith and  _ him _ .”

I glanced to my sister.  _ Do  _ _ **you** _ _ have a problem with Drew? _

_ No, but… _ Molly glanced down.  _ Nelson’s a… well, he’s… good-looking and… kind… _

“I’ve known Andrew Warren since he was six years old,” Mom said. “And I’d be happy if he was dating either one of you, but Nelson Lenhardt is an addict. That much was obvious from the moment you first brought him to meet us.”

“He isn’t… not anymore, anyway...” I said, defending my sister’s choice, even if I didn’t really like him myself. “He’s kicked his habit.”

Mom leveled a disbelieving gaze at the two of us. “He kicked his habit. So, he just stopped using heroin then? Did he go to rehab?”

“Sort of?” Molly and I said in unison, instantly regretting it. Mom caught the questioning tone in our voices and crossed her arms.

“Define sort of,” said Mom.

“Well...” I trailed off. “We may have given him something that would help take away his addiction.”

“But only if he used it on himself,” Molly added. “We didn’t force it on him or cast anything on him.”

“And Rosie, too,” I said. “We made sure the ingredients were safe for her to ingest with the baby though.”

“So, the two of you crafted a potion that… allows someone to skip rehab?” Mom asked. A spike of worry rose up within her, along with some recognition? “So it eliminates the physical effects, then?”

I winced. “Not exactly just that. It’s almost a panacea for drug addiction in general.”

Mom’s eyes narrowed, and her worry grew a bit more. “That sounds like it might dangerously skirt the Laws of Magic.”

“It’s fine,” Molly said, perhaps a bit too quickly. “Well, it should be, anyway. The potion is a variation on one that was used to deal with the symptoms of Red Court venom poisoning. It takes away the physical and mental addictions, but the drinker imbibes it of their own free will.”

“So, Nelson and your friend Rosie… they know that it’s magic?” Mom asked.

“Rosie does,” I said. “Well, she knows now anyway. We let them think it was a New Age treatment for drug addiction, and they believed it would work. Nelson and Rosie both are into that sort of thing.”

“Okay,” Mom said, frowning. She was still a bit worried, and it felt like a new source welled up within her. “So, you decided to use a potion made for vampire venom addiction to help with other addictions?”

“Yeah,” I said with a smile. This was something to be proud of. We were protecting an unborn kid, after all. “Given how potions, like other aspects of magic, responds to intent, we thought it’d be the best way to help out Rosie with her pregnancy.”

“And help Nelson too,” Molly added. “After all, we knew more or less how it would work on...”

Molly’s eyes flicked to me, and I winced. “Molly, it would work on whom?”

_ You should tell her, Fai. _ Molly sent to me, brushing her hand against my upper arm.  _ She can’t know everything, but she should know what happened then. _

I closed my eyes and breathed out a sigh. I really didn’t want to go into this, but Mom did deserve to know. “Me, Mom. Molly learned the original potion because of what happened to me. She learned it to help me.”

“You?” Mom asked. “Faith, did the wizard get you involved with the White Council’s war?”

“Not intentionally, no,” I said. “Harry wasn’t even in town when this happened. It… it was before we left, that Saturday night. Drew and I went to McAnally’s pub for dinner, and a vampire had spotted us as we left. It… well… it attacked us the moment we stepped outside the pub, and I got a pretty big dose of its venom before Drew killed it.”

Mom clenched her right hand into a fist for a second, and then she stood and came closer to us. She wrapped her arms around the both of us, and we returned the hug. Well, Molly returned it fully, but I… I wasn’t fully there. I was remembering. Stars and stones, that wasn’t a pleasant night at all. “I’m sorry that you had to experience that, Faith.”

“Harry doesn’t even know,” I whispered, leaning into my mother’s and sister’s arms. I drew some strength from the two of them, from the warmth Mom gave, from the caring Molly had for me. “Drew got taken by that necromancer the next day, and then we’d fought it… and I got into a fight with Harry before I left. I was...”

“You didn’t, Fai,” Molly said. “And you wouldn’t have the moment you realized what you were doing.”

Mom just hugged us tighter, not saying anything just yet. It was so warm, and I wrapped my arms tighter in return. It took a solid minute before she pulled away, and when she did, she looked at our faces, briefly locking eyes with each of us before we looked away. We still hadn’t soulgazed our mother, and that was something that we were trying to avoid for now. “I don’t like the two of you being away, but I understand.”

“You should come by our place sometime,” I said with a small smile. I really did want her to see the place. “We could show you our lab.”

“After we clean it up, of course. It’s… really only safe for us right now,” Molly said, a bit of embarrassment running through her.

“I think I might,” Mom said, reaching up to ruffle our hair. “I like you better with your natural color.”

“This is only for the costume, for me,” I said, reaching up to straighten my hair a little. “Moll’s will last… probably until her hair grows out further. It’ll actually look pretty nice as the tips of her longer hair.”

“If… you say so,” Mom said, not quite sure. She was happy that we were there with her even if she knew we wouldn’t be staying.

“Have you heard from Daddy?” Molly asked. “I know he went off last night, but—”

“Nothing yet,” Mom said. “But Father Forthill might be able to get news of him by tonight or tomorrow.”

That made sense. Daddy didn’t usually carry a cellphone unless he was doing his day job. His night job usually involved going to places that could cause cellphones to break easily either from the incidental hexing caused by magic or from the sheer physical activity that he ended up going through. As a wielder of one of the Swords of the Cross, he had the responsibility to answer the Lord’s call wherever that might be. I just wished it didn’t take him so far from us most of the time.

The doorbell rang, and the three of us looked toward the front door. Sure it was down the hall and past the foyer, but it was in that general direction. Molly and I frowned slightly as we felt the person at the door. Something felt off about him, yet it also felt familiar, like I’d felt his emotional signature before.

“I’ve got it!” Alicia called out, her voice echoing into the room we were in.

“Were you expecting anything, Mom?” I asked as she climbed to her feet. She didn’t seem worried, but she was on her guard a bit. It could have just been because it was Alicia answering the door. At least it wasn’t Amanda or Hope. It could have also been our reactions. Something felt a bit off, almost unnatural about the person at the door. “Like a package or something?”

“No, not at all.” Mom shook her head. “Might be a neighbor or something.”

I stood up, straightening my coat. The book within it still stayed close to my side, and I offered my twin a hand up. I doubted it was a package at this time of day, and while the neighbors were  _ possible _ , I wasn’t exactly sure they’d be coming without Daddy here. 

I placed a hand on Mom’s. I didn’t want her to worry if we were wrong. “It’s probably nothing that matters m—”

Alicia screamed, and the three of us ran toward the front of the house, meeting up with our family in the foyer. Daniel and Matthew held back Hope, Harry and Amanda as we arrived, keeping them away from the front door, and as I looked over, I saw why as the unnatural feeling asserted itself.

Standing just outside door, with an arm wrapped around my little sister was a familiar Asian face. Still young 20s, still wearing the SplatterCon!!! T-shirt, and still wearing his nametag declaring him to be the comic relief.. The primary difference between now and earlier? Now he held a glowing knife to my sister’s throat.

My sister… was being held hostage. By the comic relief.


	31. Chapter Thirty

Alicia’s the next oldest girl after me and the only dark-haired girl in our family. She wears glasses, is athletic and bookish at the same time. She’s six years younger than Molly and I, with Daniel and Matthew older than her. Now? She was being held at knife-point by that person whose name I could never remember. I just remembered that he’d felt off in how he reacted to things, but I never would have guessed that he’d be capable of doing this. The knife he held to my sister’s throat glowed with a blue aura so dark it was almost black. Unlike Sandy, who had shadowy tendrils escaping her, he simply stood there with the aura around the knife and his other arm around my sister’s waist.

Still. I felt _power_. I don’t know why I hadn’t felt it before, maybe because he hadn’t been using magic at the convention, but he had it. The blade stank of it, and the joy that he had at my sister’s fear nearly had me reaching for something that would just put him down quickly. Mom took a few steps toward the door, readying herself to do violence to the man who dared to hold her daughter hostage. She curled her fists as she took a few more—

“Upupup!” he said, pulling the knife away from my sister’s throat to wave it from side to side before placing it back against it. He didn’t feel bad about what he was doing at all, and if anything, he felt a bit of joy at his actions. “Take another step closer and the little leech gets it.”

“Let her go,” Mom said, worry coloring her voice and anger shining through her aura. “She’s only eleven. Just let her go, please...”

“Don’t worry your pretty little head, ma’am,” he said, grinning. “I plan on letting her go, just as soon as I get what I came here for.”

“What do you want, Parker?” Molly asked, stepping forward in lockstep with me as we placed ourselves in front of our family members. The street lamps started to flick on, and the setting sun cast long shadows behind him through the door.

“Oh, Molly,” Parker said, his grin widening. “You can’t step much closer either. Don’t want little sis to get hurt, do you?” Molly and I stopped moving forward. “What I want is what is mine, and I’m pretty sure you have it.”

“What makes you think that?” I asked. What could he have been asking about? Was he… was he the one who had given the book to Sandy? Is that what he wanted? If so, we needed to get everyone to safety. “Mom, panic room.”

“But...”

“We’ll get her back,” Molly said. “Trust us.”

“Yes, Mrs. Carpenter, trust them. After all, they have what I’m looking for. All that’s needed to get your daughter back is for your other daughters to give it to me.” Parker laughed. “Of course, if they don’t… well, I won’t be responsible for what happens.”

“Killing her _makes_ you responsible, Parker,” Molly growled out.

“Oh, so true.” Parker smiled and lowered the knife. “Little leech, please take this and hold it to your throat.”

Magic flowed off of Parker and into my sister, and a shudder ran through her body as it was filled with an unnatural feeling, not unlike what Sandy’d been filled with. Alicia's small hands went up to the knife, and I could feel the worry from everyone, including my own. She took the knife into her hands and held it, point first, toward her throat.

“Black magic...” I growled. “Let her _go_ , Parker.”

He held his arms up in a placating gesture. “She’s out of my hands. Little leech, go stand over there, but remain outside the door.” He gestured to a spot near him.

Alicia, blank-eyed, moved toward the spot, that feeling within her overriding her fear. I wasn’t sure if she was aware of what Parker was making her do, but Mom certainly was.

“Alicia!” Mom called out. “Fight it, honey...”

“Little leech, if your mother comes near you, stab yourself in the throat.” Parker’s smile could only be described as sadistic here, matching what I felt coming from him emotionally. “Same for your siblings. Now, I’m not an unreasonable man.”

“Mom,” I hissed out. “Get them to the panic room. We’ll make sure Alicia’s fine.”

“Trust us,” Molly added, her gaze shifting from Parker to our sister. We both were worried, but we couldn’t show it to the warlock in front of us. We vaguely heard Mom’s affirmation as she herded everyone further inside, to get to the room that Daddy had installed for things like this. It was good to be trusted, but we still had to get our sister back.

“Now, they could have stuck around,” Parker said. “But I suppose if you give me what I want, they’ll be fine where they are.”

“What do you want, Parker?” Molly asked a second time as I slowly started gathering my will. Alicia needed to be rescued, and there was a way to do it without her getting hurt while still denying her captor what he wanted. I was pretty sure of that anyway. I needed to be fully sure.

“What do you think I want, Molly?” Parker asked. “Beautiful women, riches… people bowing down and kowtowing to me.”

“From us, moron,” I asked.

“Well, you  _ are _ beautiful,” Parker said. “Of course, what I want from you is something more important than those wants.”

“Thrice I ask and done,” Molly snarled. Parker might not have been a fae, but he certainly was avoiding answers like one. “What is it that you want?”

“My book,” Parker growled, and that was actual anger in him, not just the unnatural feeling. He wasn’t possessed though. That feeling had to be his magic, the tainted aspect of using it for mind control. That’d explain why Alicia had it now. “The one that Sandra had when I sent her after you. She was supposed to bring you to me, but instead… she failed. No matter. Give the book back, and I will let your little leech live.”

I narrowed my eyes as the sun dipped further in the sky. Sunset was maybe a few minutes away, which meant we had to get our sister away from Parker sooner than that. After sunset it would become that much harder. The problem was that he wanted the book, something that obviously now was linked to what Lara had wanted us to deal with in the first place. This wasn’t a choice that I wanted to make.

So, of course, I didn’t.

“I have a better idea.” I unleashed the spell I’d been building up, and the runic markings on the back of my gloves lit up. “ _ Soukotte. _ ”

The world slowed down around me, and as it did so, I heard Parker start to bark out an order to my sister. While I couldn’t hear it proper due to the increased speed of my perception, I had a guess, which meant I needed to handle this  _ now _ .

I ran out the door to my younger sister, and in a fluid motion, I snatched the knife away from her, forcing it out of her grip with a bit of leverage that shouldn’t have hurt her. I threw the knife toward the bushes, letting it pause mid-air as I focused the energy I had flowing through me into my sister. I needed to get her away from Parker, and I needed to break the hold he had on her. Molly and I would have a pain in the ass time to get it working, but we could do it once we dealt with Parker.

The moment the energy had sufficiently been suffused into Alicia, she made a swift stabbing motion, pushing the no longer there knife toward her throat. Stars and stones, the boy’d been serious. Okay. We seriously needed to deal with him. Ground his magic, call Harry. I scooped my sister up, and she started writhing in my grip, so I put her in a fireman’s carry and moved as quickly as I could back into the house.

“Calm down, Alicia,” I said, emphasizing her name. She still squirmed as I moved, and I could feel Parker’s control over her still there. That said, it wavered slightly, and I knew my sister was behind it, aware. I knew she was there. “Alicia Madeline Francis Carpenter, you can  _ fight this _ .”

I coupled her Name with a burst of magic, to try and force control away from Parker. Initially, it seemed to do nothing, but just before my spell ended, I felt the spark that was my sister start growing. When the spell ended, I passed her to Molly.

“Got her,” Molly said, pushing our sister back further into the house. She’d prepared her own spells to push into our sister once she got her in hand. We’d free her from Parker, and the threshold of our house would help. Parker’s black magic would severely be weakened by passing through it.

“How?” Parker asked, a little bewildered, though the flames of anger fueled his magic. “What did you just do?”

“Oh, you just decided that since we beat your puppet we couldn’t beat you too?” Molly asked.

“Do you even know who we are?” I asked, standing slightly in front of Molly as the two of us stepped out front of the house. Shoving the door closed behind me, I allowed a single spark to travel up my arm. “Do you even know what you’re dealing with?

Parker’s rage spiked. “I’m dealing with two sluts who are going to give me everything I want.” He raised his right hand, and that unnatural feeling gathered within him. This had to be what he’d used on Sandy and Alicia. We couldn’t let that happen to us as well, but we had an advantage that they didn’t. Molly and I were  _ wizards _ . Sure, we were technically still in training, but Parker clearly didn’t even know we had our own magic. “Now then, my twins, you will give me everything!  _ Mentallis! _ ”

The moment he released his spell, we acted. Though Parker was clearly willing to break the Laws to get at the book, we weren’t willing to break them to act against him. Instead, we charged the dark-haired boy, bolstering our shields against the magic that he was channeling. We felt it slam against them, but Parker clearly had only dealt with natural shields before. He wouldn’t be able to get through. We’d get to him, deck him, and then we’d give him to Harry to give to the rest of the Wardens. No mercy for anyone who dared to try to hurt our family. We just needed to make it another fifte—what was that?

Three… three fearful sources of energy materialized nearby, two of them familiar. The first familiar one had left an impression on our psyche when part of us fought it the previous night. It had murdered three people and injured a number of others in an effort to create fear among the crowd. It had wanted to feed on them, feed on the part of us and feed on our friends, but Harry had stopped it. The Reaper had been stopped last night, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t standing there, looking much the same with his scythe out. 

The second familiar source… had been in the bathroom that Clark Pell and Nelson had been in. We hadn’t seen what it looked like, until now. He resembled an average Caucasian farmer, muscles bulging under his coverall, standing maybe just over six and a half feet tall. He seemed mostly normal until our eyes drifted to his arms, where instead of hands, he had a pair of sledgehammers strapped onto them.  _ Hammerhands _ . 

Standing behind Parker, the third presence, the one unfamiliar to us, made itself known. It stood easily at eleven feet tall, dressed in rags and inhuman in its thinness. Its huge bulbous head was in the shape of a pumpkin carved with evil looking eyes that glowed with red flames. Its limbs were tough, thick vines, and its arms stretched to the ground where the vines split into dozens of thin twisty tendrils.

The Scarecrow of  _ Harvest _ stood among the other horror movie monsters, behind Parker. Its pumpkin mouth spread apart, revealing fangs, and we prepared to ignore the warlock in favor of dealing with his pets behind him. These felt like they were more autonomous than Jason or that puppet had been, but clearly, Parker had needed to even the odds.

“Bringing out reinforcements because you couldn’t just take it, Parker?” we asked, not letting our fear show. Scarecrow frightened a part of us more than it should have.  _ Harvest _ was actually pretty scary, but we needed to deal with what had been here. “How many Laws are you going to break?”

“You’re not making any sense!” Parker called. “I haven’t broken anything! The little leech is alive, and if she’d died, it would have been her fault, not mine. Ruled a suicide.” Parker then seemed to notice our company. “Go on then, attack them!”

A grin came to Scarecrow’s flaming teeth, and he reached up one of his vine-like arms. Then with a whip-crack, he wrapped his arms around Parker’s neck, pulling taut. What? Hadn’t Parker summoned them to deal with us? Wasn’t he the one responsible for them being at the con in the first place… being here in the first place? A burst of pain in the back of my head blared, but I fought it off. Memories. Something like this had happened… before.

But we couldn’t let that happen. We couldn’t let Parker be hurt by these things, especially if he didn’t summon them. He might have deserved to die for being a warlock, but he didn’t deserve it like this. We leveled our right hands at the Scarecrow, and, balling up our fear to fuel the spell, we unleashed our spell.  _ “Sessakufuu. _ ”

Twin laser-like streams of cutting wind slammed into the Scarecrow, pushing him backward and cutting into his vines… superficially anyway. The vines wrapped around Parker’s neck pulled tighter, and we heard a loud cracking sound, forcing us separate as Parker fell over, limp in the creature’s hand.

Scarecrow then turned to us. “Faith Carpenter?”

I hadn’t expected the thing to know my name, given that I wasn’t exactly as famous as Harry. I wasn’t even sure how I’d answer this thing. This phobophage that specifically asked for me… had just killed someone on our property. Sure, it was someone that was going to die anyway, but the way he’d gone had been terrible.

Of course, my worrying over what I’d say was moot. I never got the chance as a hammer slammed into the side of my head and I blacked out.

  



	32. Interlude: Harry Dresden

What had I done? The spell wasn’t supposed to send the phages after my apprentices. They wouldn’t have been the ones who called them. _They knew better_. Yet I couldn’t deny what my eyes were seeing or where the misty trail had led. 

The vapor had led to a two-story white house. Normally it was a charming place, somehow carrying the look of suburbia despite being inside the third largest city in America. The lawn was green despite the heat; it had a white picket fence, and children’s toys scattered in various areas across the lawn.

The trail had led up to the picket fence first, where three separate large holes in the fence indicated three large things had burst the fence into splinters. Heavy sets of footprints gouged the lawn, and an imitation old-style wrought-iron gaslight had been bent so it was parallel to the ground, four feet up. The minivan in the driveway had been crushed, as if a wrecking ball had landed on it.

Oh. God. That looked like a body on the driveway, and some more blood. I took a closer look at it from where I was. Poor man had his head at an unnatural angle. Murph would need to know about this if possible. At least it wasn’t my apprentices or any of Michael’s family.

I got out of the van my brother had driven us here in, Madrigal’s van. Stars and stones, how could I have done this? How the hell could it have happened? The spell shouldn’t have sent them here. It made absolutely no sense. The phages shouldn’t have come here. My apprentices... they were innocent of anything like this.

I stood on the sidewalk outside the house for a moment, just staring. The streetlights were all out nearby, and only the lights from the van showed the damage. Thomas turned them off only after a moment. There was no disturbance on the street here, no sign of any police presence or outcry. However this had happened, something or someone had done something to keep it from alerting the neighbors.

I honestly couldn’t say how long I stood there, but after a bit, I felt Mouse’s presence at my side, and then my brother’s on the other side of me.

“Harry?” he said, drawing my attention. “This is their place, right?”

I nodded, my face grim. “It’s Michael’s house, Molly’s and Faith’s house. Their home.”

“They… those things, they came here?” Thomas asked, and I gave a nod. “ _How?_ You said you were turning them back on their summoner...”

“Yeah,” I said, swallowing. God, I just felt so tired. This… whatever it was… it was over. Nothing left but to check for survivors, see who had been hurt, and I didn’t want to do that, not with someone already dead.

“They wouldn’t do that. They wouldn’t summon the phages to harm anyone,” my brother said with conviction, and I agreed. I’d taught them well, when they’d been with me, but then… I didn’t know what they’d been up to while they were gone. Faith and I had argued about her recklessness the previous year, and she’d run away. Her twin followed not long after.

I’m still not certain how they’d managed to avoid my tracking spells. It didn’t matter though. I stood there staring at the house for a bit, until my brother finally said something. “I’ll keep watch out here, circle around and see if there’s anything.”

I nodded, bleakly and swallowed again. “Okay.”

I really didn’t want to go over and do this. Not here. I stepped onto the damaged lawn, passing by the dead body. I didn’t really recognize him at all. He wore a SplatterCon!!! shirt, and around his neck, there were dark marks, combined with the angle of his head to his body, it was obvious his cause of death. I was grateful that he wasn’t one of Michael’s, but still, dead was dead. He had probably been killed by the Scarecrow. Unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, unfortunately. Mouse joined me at my side as I dragged my weary ass up to the doorway.

Luckily, the door seemed to be undamaged. Whatever had happened, it had seemed to confine itself to outside, leaving the interior of the house alone. Maybe it wasn’t able to affect the inside, even if it had wanted to, but I wasn’t sure. I tested the door, pulling at it, and it opened without issue. It hadn’t even been locked.

Mouse went inside first, walking on three legs, still limping from when Madrigal hit him with the van we arrived in, and I followed, wishing I had three legs to use. The interior of the house seemed pristine. The entry hall and living room were undisturbed. The television remained turned off.

Utter silence reigned in the house.

“Hello?” I called.

No one answered, at least not initially. Then Mouse seemed to hear something, and he limped over behind the couch in the living room, nudging at something before turning to me and chuffing. I moved to get a better angle on what he was looking at, and... there, crouched in a huddled position behind the couch was Michael and Charity’s dark-haired daughter, Alicia. Her glasses were off her face, and her expression was torn and ashen.

“Alicia?” I asked. Hell’s bells, I hoped that I wasn’t the reason she was like this.

“Mister Dresden?” She asked in a small voice, and Mouse nuzzled into her a little.

“Yes,” I said in what I hoped was a reassuring voice. “What happened?”

“I answered the door,” Alicia said, her hands going to Mouse. “And… knife… and… I don’t...”

_She seems distraught, my host._ Lasciel’s voice spoke softly in my ear, but she didn’t appear. No kidding though. The kid looked like she’d been through Hell, but she wasn’t physically hurt.  _Physical pain is hardly the only way it could happen. It resembles…_

Stars and stones. I knew what she was talking about. That kid the other day, his victims had all had similar reactions to Alicia’s. Mind control. Someone had violated the fourth law on one of Michael’s kids, on one of my apprentice’s sisters, and that  _hadn’t_ come from me.

_No, my host. The phages would only incite fear to feed upon it._

“Harry!” Thomas called from outside. “Harry, come here!”

“Mouse, stay with her,” I said, and my dog chuffed an acknowledgment. Thomas’s voice had been tense, excited, so I rushed through the kitchen and out the door to the backyard. I found Thomas climbing down from a treehouse that was just the tiniest bit nicer than my apartment, built up from the branches of the old oak behind the Carpenters’ house. He had still form draped over his shoulder.

Drawing out my amulet, I called wizard light as Thomas laid one of my apprentices, Molly, out on the grass in the backyard. Thankfully, she was breathing but she looked pale. I knew it was Molly because of the blue and pink hair as opposed to the black that Faith had been sporting earlier that day. She was wearing the same outfit I’d seen her in earlier, a SplatterCon!!! tee and jeans. Both were soaked in blood. She had a cut on her shoulder, and a bit of bruising on her face and at her left wrist. Gripped tightly in her right hand was a wand. 

Even unconscious, she’d refused to give it up.

“Give her the coat,” I said to my brother. “She’s cold.”

Thomas nodded and immediately draped my duster over her. I propped her feet up on my backpack, and after ordering him to stay there, I went into the house to get a glass of water and brought it out. Alicia and Mouse had made their way into the kitchen, but they stayed inside. I knelt down next to my apprentice and tried to wake her up, getting her to drink a little. She sputtered a bit at first, then drank, and then she opened her eyes, focusing only after a second.

“Molly,” I said quietly. “It’s Harry. I’m here for you.”

“Harry?” Molly asked, her voice quiet.

“Yeah, Grasshopper, I’m here.”

“Harry,” she said, and then her eyes burst open and she tried to sit up. “Where’s Fai? Harry, where is she?”

“Easy, Molly,” I told her. “I don’t know how bad you’re hurt yet. Don’t move.”

“They took her, Harry,” Molly said. “Can’t feel her… anywhere near here. They took her. Is Alicia okay? Mom, the jawas?”

“I found Alicia,” I said. “But the others… I don’t know.”

“Oh, good,” Molly said. “Is Alicia… is she okay? Is she herself?”

“Near as I can tell,” I said. “She’s with Mouse.”

Molly seemed to relax a little at that. “Panic room, where the others are...”

“What?” I can be so eloquent sometimes.

“Second floor… Daddy built it… Safe. Just in case.” Molly coughed. “They’ll be there...”

I glanced to Thomas, exchanging a look. “Where is it?”

“Upstairs...” Molly gestured vaguely with her wand. “Head’s pounding, Harry… My sister… she’s gone...”

“We’ll find her, Grasshopper. I promise. What happened?”

“Alicia answered the door,” Molly said. “Parker, outside…” That must have been the dead kid. “He… some spell… Took Alicia hostage. Had her hold the knife to her throat.”

That hadn’t been the phages. “And?”

“Saved her.” Molly coughed again. “Then they appeared. Killed Parker, knocked Fai out… I tried to save her.”

“Who appeared?”

“Reaper. Hammerhands. Scarecrow. Asked for her by name.” Tears started streaming down my apprentice’s face. “They took her...”

I snarled out an angry curse. “Thomas, stay with her and keep watch. Mouse is inside with her sister.” I didn’t bother to wait for my brother’s nod as I stood and strode into the house. I climbed the stairs quickly, looking for the panic room. The upstairs hallway had a bunch of bedrooms off it, with the eldest being opposite the master bedroom and the younger ones progressively closer to their parents. Each was empty, and the one on the end with the door only slightly cracked looked like it had been empty longer than the others.

I doubted I’d have found it if I hadn’t been looking. Between the linen closet and the master bedroom, there was a bit of extra space. I checked the closet in the master bedroom first, and it turned out to be nothing. So I checked in the linen closet, and the shelves were in complete disarray. Sheets, towels and blankets had been strewn out on the floor. I ended up crouching down and held my mother’s amulet up, peering closely. There. A section of the back wall barely misaligned with the corner it met. I reached out and touched that part of the wall, closing my eyes and extending my senses through my fingertips.

Power. I felt power there, unlike any ward I’d encountered before. It was more of a quite hum than anything loud, but it was magical, the power of faith that I’d felt around Michael on several occasions, and rarely from his daughters. It was protecting it.

_Angelic work, my host_ . Lasciel’s voice rolled through my thoughts, anticipating my question.  _Rafael or one of his lieutenants, from the feel of it._

“Dangerous to me?”

_Possibly,_ Lasciel allowed.  _You are touched by more darkness than my own, but it is not meant to strike an intruder, simply to hide the room beyond._

I nodded and then reached out to rap hard on the panel.

It sounded like a bit of motion, maybe weight shifting around. So I knocked again.

“Charity!” I called. “It’s Harry Dresden!”

The motion happened again, definitely this time. The panel clicked, and then it rolled smoothly to one side, revealing a double-barreled shotgun aimed directly at me. I looked down the barrel, seeing Charity’s cold blue eyes on the other end of the gun.

“How do I know you’re the real Dresden?” she asked.

“I am.”

“Prove it,” she said, her tone quiet and balanced.

“Hell’s bells, Charity, what do you want, my driver’s license? There’s no time for this.”

“Bleed.”

“Fine,” I said, pulling out my penknife. She’d had a good point. Most things that could imitate me didn’t go beyond skin deep. They certainly wouldn’t have human blood. So I cut my mangled left hand, bleeding from a wound I didn’t feel, revealing myself to be as I said I was.

She eased the hammers back down on the shotgun and set it to the side before wriggling out of the space beyond the panel. A candle lit back there showed the rest of the Carpenter children, sans Faith, inside. Daniel and Matthew were sitting awake, worried looks on their faces, but the rest were passed out.

“Faith, Molly,” Charity said, once she’d gained her feet. “Alicia?”

“I found her hiding behind a couch.”

“She’s not hurt?” Charity asked.

“Not physically,” I said. “Mouse is with her in the kitchen.”

“Mentally and spiritually,” Charity said, pausing. “Black magic.”

“Yeah, Molly pointed that out.” I grimaced. “She’s hurt.”

She nodded once. “How badly?”

“Banged up quite a bit, but I’m pretty sure she’s not in immediate danger. Thomas is out with her, making sure she’ll stay okay.”

Charity nodded again, her features calm, her eyes cold. She was acting cool-headed, but her trembling hands and fingers gave her away. “Faith?”

I shook my head. “Haven’t found her. Not yet. Molly thinks they took her.”

“They?” Charity asked. “Were they Denarians?”

“No,” I said. “Definitely not.”

“Will they return?” Charity asked.

“Probably not,” I said. “Even if they did, you should be safe inside your threshold.”

“Maybe,” Charity said. “But if there’s any possibility that they could get around that… we need to get the rest of the children to the church. Make sure Molly gets some help. I’ll try to get some word to Michael. Then we find Faith.”

“Charity, wait.” I looked to her.

“Mister Dresden,” Charity said, her voice quiet and very precise. “My children need to get to safety. Then I will request that you assist in finding my second eldest daughter once more. I suggest you help me or stand aside.”

Then she started bringing her children out of the linen closet. Daniel and Matthew helped, bringing Hope, Harry and Amanda out, though they stayed limp. I offered to help, but with Daniel already up and awake, I was unnecessary. Instead we made our way back down to Alicia, who was given a quick hug by her mother, and Molly, who had started to climb to her feet.

“It was Parker,” Molly said when I got close. “He summoned things, but that didn’t explain why the Scarecrow called Fai by name before Hammerhands hit her.”

“He what?” I asked. Hell’s bells, had it really been after Faith the entire time? She’d been there when the Reaper had attacked the room with Suburban Slasher, and she’d claimed to be in the hallway when Hammerhands attacked Pell..

“Looked just like on Fai’s statue too, Scarecrow did,” Molly said, leaning on Thomas.

Charity walked over to her daughter and offered her shoulder for her to lean on.

“Molly, you and your sister did well,” Charity said, rubbing her daughter’s back before turning to me. “Thank you, Mister Dresden.”

I closed my eyes and nodded. A statue. Faith’s statue. I wondered if that could be used as a focus.

_It likely wasn’t intentional, my host_ . Lasciel had to put her two cents in.  _As bright as Faith Carpenter is, she wouldn’t have intentionally called something like this upon the populace of the convention._

Still, it had led to me putting her in danger. To possibly killing her. If Charity knew that I might have just killed Faith, that I’d put her and the rest of her children in danger, she’d murder me.

If my apprentice had been hurt at all because of me? I’d let her.


	33. Chapter Thirty-One

My head hurt. Something to be expected when you’re hit in the side of a head with a hammer, but that didn’t nullify the fact that it really,  _really_ hurt. This was maybe the fifth time in three years that I’d gotten a head injury, and… stars and stones, they never really got easier. I just needed to clutch my head and deal with this headspace, wherever I was. Curling up and just giving in to the pain seemed like it could have been an option. Head wounds suck.

“Could be worse, Faithy,” my voice said. “They could have actually wanted to kill you.”

Looking up toward the speaker, I saw my darker self. Today her hair was bleached nearly white, her lips were painted blue, and she wore a lacy blue dress that barely covered enough to make her decent. Her eyes, normally the same as my own, were ever so slightly bluer, giving an almost wintry hue to them. Positively polar.

She came over to me, and she lifted helping me to a soft couch made out of packed snow. Cool to the touch, yet not freezing cold, the snow-couch let me focus and look around. The walls of the… well, I’ll call it a room for now, the walls surrounding us were icy crags, lined with bookshelves carved into the faces. Open sky sat above me, lit by twinkling stars formed into constellations, some that I recognized and some that I failed to, even with the lines visibly tracing between them. Snow covered the ground, making a pristine white floor of fresh powder. It even smelled like snow, but not the snow that I’d get in the city. This snow was pure, like that on top of an untouched mountain.

It definitely hadn’t been this way the last time I was here. If Molly had been with me, I’d see about trying to scale the cra—right, this wasn’t exactly real. This was inside my head. Would have been neat if it was real though. Still… it was different.

“What happened?”

“Felt like a bit of a change.” My inner self’s blue-painted lips quirked upward. “Now Faithy, what exactly were you thinking there, facing those fetches head on? Were you trying to get yourself killed?”

“Fetches,” I said, a bit of disbelief in my voice. “The phobophages were fetches?”

I tried to remember what exactly a fetch was, and the crags around me began to rumble as a sharp pain stabbed through my mind. No. I needed to know what this was… what was going on. I rubbed my head, focusing. I needed to know so I could protect my family. I could make it through this.

“Yep,” said my double, popping the p on her ice-blue lips. “Fetches, servants of the great queen of Winter, and… well, phobophages. Come on, didn’t you pay attention?”

“Why can’t I remember right?” I asked, rubbing my head. It shouldn’t hurt to try and remember, but for some reason it did; for some reason I couldn’t fathom, my memories of this time actively hurt me. Or they did, anyway… The pain was fading now; and while some memories still were foggy, I could remember Harry robbing Hades just fine. The circumstances surrounding it? They were less clear, but there was something cool about a god’s dog’s name being “Spot.”

“It’s been nearly eighteen years, Faithy,” she said, her lips quirking upward. Then she stepped closer to me, crossing her arms. “Our memory was never photographic, even in our last life. But no, this was different.”

“Why does it hurt?” I asked, making it clear this time. I figured that if anyone knew why, it’d be her, given that she was my subconscious, my inner self.

My inner self cocked her head slightly, and she looked me over. “Deterrence. For you, and for me. If it hurt to remember, more than it usually did, then you wouldn’t want to look into it. Aversion therapy at its simplest.” She shook her head and waved her hand. A recliner rose up out of the snow and she sat down upon it, crossing her legs daintily as she looked over at me. “And before you ask who actually did the deterrence, I’m not sure. You’re not sure either, I know, but I’m sure you have some suspicions.”

“Given the scenery?” I asked, gesturing around for emphasis. The snow-blasted landscape surrounding me definitely spoke to some sort of interference. I just wasn’t sure when I’d come in contact with any fae lately, other than the fetches themselves. “And given that they were fetches?”

“You’ve had so many people traipsing through your mind that it could have been anyone,” she said sardonically. She uncrossed and recrossed her legs, switching their orientation so that the right one was on top. “But yes, Winter has been considered on my end too.”

“Especially with the icy representation,” I said.

“I don’t think it’s them, though, even with the fetches showing up,” she said, frowning. “Still, you need more power if you’re going to be fighting fetches. That book you picked up should do nicely.”

“You kidding?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure that the book’s half the reason that the freaking Walker showed up earlier with the other half being Parker.”

“You could use it, control it. Being like that has a bit of power to it, and you could probably take that power to protect the jawas, to protect Molly,” she said. “There are worse fates out there than being mind controlled, and you could protect them from all of them.”

She wasn’t wrong. Any number of the beings that the Venatori prevented knowledge of from getting out were powerful in their own right. They were just limited in how they could interact with the world. This thing, this Source of Fear, it needed to act through hosts in order to gain power, and it didn’t look like Sandy was doing it willingly. In fact, judging from the feelings that Molly and I were getting from her and the similar feelings we got from Alicia, it was entirely likely that the use of the book had been Parker’s idea that he forced upon our friend the way he tried to make our sister stab herself. The real question would be whether or not the thing had actual power that was usable without summoning it directly. Even if it did, it was something that shouldn’t be interacting with the mortal realm, something that should stay relegated to its corner of the Nevernever. As tempting as the offer was

“No,” I said., shaking my head. “I won’t do that. I won’t use it that way. That power source should just be forgotten, relegated to oblivion.”

“Not even If it meant saving the jawas?” she asked, crossing her arms. “Not even if it meant saving _Molly_?”

I bit my lip. My family was  _my family_ . I couldn’t… it just wasn’t… it wasn’t something I could justify to myself, even to protect them. I’d lose my life to keep them safe. I’d die sooner than let harm come to a single one of them, but… saving them like that… I’d lose them. I’d lose  _her_ . Giving into the temptation of power, I’d lose my twin. None of them would want me to do something like that. Molly wouldn’t, just as I wouldn’t want it for her.

Still… They were the important ones, but… the power of an Old One was too volatile, too unpredictable. The temptation of power was there, but the risks far outweighed any potential rewards that I could get.

“No. The Source of Fear shall know its end,” I said, and a small smile found its way to my darker self’s face. She’d accepted the choice

“It’s too controlling for us anyway,” she said with a scoff. “Besides, the real power’s in things that we can control, even for a bit. No coin. No Old Ones. We will not be beholden to anything for the sake of power for power’s sake.”

I nodded. “Still, fighting fetches...”

“You don’t need to fight them,” she said. “If they haven’t killed us, they have reason to take us somewhere.”

“Direction,” I said. “But… would that mean..?”

My double smirked. “A short while before we started learning from Harry, we met some fae, do you remember?”

I closed my eyes. Funny, that. I was unconscious, talking to a representation of my inner desires, unchecked by my ego or superego, and… frankly, I had no clue what I was talking about with that. She was my darker side, sure, but didn’t everyone have one? At any rate, she was talking about… oh. Maeve. The Winter Lady. She’d been having a tea party and wanted Molly, Thomas and I to fight the Bandersnatch. We managed to avoid that initially, but then somehow she ended up siccing the thing on us anyway. I hadn’t wanted… to…

“Oh.”

“Ding ding!” My double laughed. “Just now figured it out, didn’t you? The very thing you hoped to avoid with the Winter Lady, you managed to accomplish with her mother!”

“But I just wanted to help her…” I murmured. Mab deserved to know what would happen or had happened to her daughter. Maeve and… well, the other one… she had two daughters. She cared about them both, even if she didn’t dare let herself let on about it. Even if she couldn’t let on about it. Her humanity still shone through a little bit in how she felt about them, and… if she was able to save Maeve in time… maybe future events would be able to be averted.

“Yes, helping her has been good for you,” she said. “After all, gaining the favor of the Queen of the Unseelie has to count for something. I’m not even sure she’s figured out what to get for us in return.”

“But I didn’t want anything in return!”

“I know.” She didn’t continue, but I still heard the implied “you moron” in her voice. She wasn’t exactly mad at me, but she was annoyed. “You should have asked for something, anything of value.”

“But I didn’t want anything,” I said, huffing. I really hadn’t wanted anything from Mab at all. I just wanted to help out someone whom I felt was a bit misunderstood. Sure, the Winter Queen might have been able to give lessons to all the dark things out there, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t necessary. That didn’t mean she was evil. Well, not totally anyway. Perhaps it was a bit naive of me to think that, but I didn’t believe that any of the fae were truly evil, even if they couldn’t be trusted to do what was right. “I just… wanted to help.”

“And that help, Faithy, well...” My double gestured around us. “She’s made her mark. It’s obvious that we’re connected to Winter somehow, and the fetches obviously saw it. The question is, how can we take advantage of that? How can we _use_ it?”

“Why… why would we need to?”

My double looked at me with something akin to pity. “You’re going to need all the help you can get where we’re going.”

I frowned. Wonderfully ominous. My double seemed to take on the annoyingly wizardly habit of not revealing all that needed to be revealed unless asked in an appropriately dramatic manner. I swear, she was more influenced by Dresden than either Molly or I. Of course, given that she was me, I had to have a healthy dose of denial to be able to even think that. Still…

“Okay, I’ll bite,” I said, standing off the snow-couch. “Where is it we’re going?”

“Scarecrow said your name, Faithy. He _knew you_. He was after _you_ ,” said my double. “Parker was a speedbump, and we’re the main course. Congratulations! You saved Molly from a terrible fate.”

“Spit it out already,” I growled. Hell’s bells, I was glad that I wasn’t quite this mouthy when awake. I’d probably piss off more than just Lara. “Where are we going?”

“Isn’t it obvious, Faithy?” She spun around, and as she raised her hands, bursts of snowy sparkles exited them, going into the ground and raising a castle of ice with intricately carved parapets and towers. “They took you. They won’t let you go. You won’t have the luxury to hold it back anymore where we’re going.”

“You’re going to make me do it,” I said sourly. She was asking for it, and I didn’t even know if it’d work properly with her, given she was a part of me. “Thrice I ask and done. Where the _fuck_ are we going?”

My double’s laughter was almost cruel. She blinked her eyes shut for a second, and when she opened them, her smile was different, colder. Her eyes focused on me, and she said, “I would have thought you’d be able to guess by now, Faith. Winter has given an explicit invitation, and it’s time we kept it. We’re going into Arctis Tor, the heart of Mab’s power.”

Stars and stones, that wasn’t good. That they were bringing me to Arctis Tor… that was… oh dear. I’d have to figure out a way to survive and make my way through this.

“You had better wake soon,” she said, her smile warming a little.

“Why? If we’re going to Arctis Tor, I’d like to wake up on my own time.”

“Normally, that probably wouldn’t be an issue, but there’s just one major problem.”

I shook my head. Always with the problems. If I could go one day without an issue, that’d be great. “Okay, what is it?”

“Arctis Tor is under attack.”

Crap, that couldn't be good.


	34. Chapter Thirty-Two

When I woke after talking with my inner self, I immediately felt two things: pain and cold. My head throbbed from the head injury that I’d taken, and I was thankful I had managed to survive it. The cold’s source was less obvious. It seemed that the fetches had deposited me in what, at first glance, appeared to be a room made of black stone, but a closer look revealed that deception. Black ice normally didn’t look like hewn stone, but given enough permafrost and will, it clearly could be sculpted that way. On one wall, a glass-less window sat, peering out into a snowstorm. Through it, I could hear the sounds of battle: roars of challenge and the clashing of tooth and claw. Opposite it, I could see what passed for a door, a slab of ice that was halfway open, pulled outward. On the first pass, the doorway seemed empty, so I stood and went to look out the window… at Arctis Tor.

Arctis Tor sat in the dead center of Winter’s power in Faerie, in the Nevernever, atop the highest mountain. This was a fortress, enormously large, made entirely of black ice. The structures I saw outside the window led me to believe this was a shadowy cube save for the single spire at its center, the seat of Mab’s power. I couldn’t see the gates from where I was, but I could see the forces as they ran toward it. Untold numbers of goblins rushed down the corridors down below. I heard smashing further down, the sounds of battle, and the smell of brimstone wafted up to my nose, though I still couldn’t see the source. Stars and stones… Hellfire. Something was using Hellfire. That… wasn’t good.

Though I couldn’t see the combatants, I felt them, their feelings, their energies. They weren’t anything human on either side, and I could feel their hunger for the fight, the mindlessness of their opponents. Whatever they were facing, they weren’t entirely fae, not from what I was feeling anyway. They didn’t feel the same as Mab’s forces. Winter had arrayed some strong fighters there too. Perhaps trolls or ogres or giants or something. Whatever they were, there weren’t all that many of them, which just seemed wrong to me. This was Mab’s fortress, her core base. Why weren’t there more combatants? Wasn’t her army supposed to be the largest possible army that the Nevernever had to offer?

And wait… where was my sister? Molly wasn’t here with me. Molly was…. I couldn’t even feel her presence anywhere nearby. Nowhere within my range, maybe nowhere anywhere near here. Was she okay? Why couldn’t I feel her? Molly… She had to be okay. I looked out the window at Arctis Tor, and frowned. This… Here… She must have been in the real world as opposed to Faerie. If she were here, I’d feel her. Maybe it was for the best. I’d just have to figure out how… without her… to deal with things here… Add the head pain… ergh...

“If you are done staring, mortal, perhaps you might be inclined to move,” said the voice of a malk. Malk voices are unpleasant to hear, not quite as bad as nails on a chalkboard, but much worse than listening to the fiercest yowl of an unhappy cat. The timbre of their voices caused the hairs on the back of my neck and what few hairs there were on my arms to stand on end, and this malk was no exception.

I spun, lifting my gloved left hand in a defensive gesture, but the malk simply sat in the doorway to the chambers, radiating inhuman amusement. His fur was pitch-black, save for a small spot on his chest where it was white. He was  _huge_ , maybe eighty to ninety pounds, and his too-long tail curled all the way around his front feet and overlapped in the back. 

Given my last experience with malks and where I was, I knew not to display any outward sign of surprise at his presence, despite the fact that something the size of a small mountain lion was talking to me. “What are you doing here?”

“Retrieving you, mortal.” The malk inclined his feline head, as if it were some great task that he had been given, as if I should have been honored by his presence. Strange. Still, he was retrieving me for a reason, and if I was to return home, I needed to know that reason.

“For?” I reached out some more with my senses, pulling them back from the battles to deal with what was right there in front of me and… oh. That was… oh. Power. That was a significant amount of power. Normally, a wizard’s aura of power couldn’t be felt unless you were close enough to touch it or you cheated like Molly and I do sometimes, but I hadn’t even needed to do so here. I barely extended my senses, and I could feel the malk’s aura from where I stood at the window. This thing was… old. Ancient. Fitting, considering where I was.

“I have been bidden to retrieve you and bring you to where you need to be,” said the malk, golden eyes looking over me.

“Why you and not one of the fetches?” I asked, my head throbbing in remembrance of Hammerhand’s strike, or perhaps it was just throbbing due to the head injury to begin with.

The malk stared at me for a second, seemingly dismissing the question. Why  _not_ him? Honestly, given what the fetches probably truly looked like, I was glad enough that the malk had been sent to get me instead.

“Okay, not answering that, I suppose,” I said, pulling my coat further around me. It was a bit cold, after all. “Who are you?”

“Merely a faithful servant of the Queen of Air and Darkness. I am commonly called Sith,” the malk said, and given the power I felt behind the name, I restrained myself from making the joke. Sith. Empty night.

“Cat Sith?” I asked, my voice raising. If this was who I thought it was, I was either in extreme danger or I was perfectly safe. I suspected my choice on whether to go with him or not would lead to that dichotomy being truly decided.

“Indeed.” The room shook, and I was once again reminded of the battle being fought outside. “While I have no care beyond courtesy for your safety, if I am to complete my task, you must follow, mortal.”

“Follow where?” I asked, moving away from the stone window, toward the turning malk. “Where are we going?”

“To a place safer than here,” said Cat Sith, his golden eyes narrowing as he turned back toward me, his tail twitching as he moved, the tip flicking in a come-hither motion. I went thither, following the malk. Fae couldn’t directly lie, though that didn’t preclude them from being deceitful, but it seemed that Sith was being honest in his intent as he led the way down the halls of the building I was at, even as it shook. “Make haste, mortal. You do not want to be in here if the walls come down.”

Though I followed, I frowned. That didn’t make a whole lot of sense. This was  _Arctis Tor_ , Mab’s seat of power, why would the walls come down in the first place?

The walls shook again, and the malk in front of me increased his pace. I increased to match it. The walls of the hall, like the room I’d been in were hewn black ice, leading down a tunnel. Goblins rushed out of rooms on the side and down other corridors, but the malk kept on leading forward. We finally turned right before the building started to curve around, and I realized where we were.

“Are we in the walls of the fortress?” I asked as we moved, realizing, but the malk said nothing in response. Taking its silence as affirmation, I asked another question, “Why aren’t we heading outside yet if the building’s shaking?”

Before the feline fae could answer, one of the ice walls shattered inward as a simian fist punched through. It reached inward and pulled on the wall, a second fist following it shortly afterward. The scent of rotten fish wafted in through the hole, and the sound of ape-like grunting and growling came from outside. It made my head hurt with how bad it smelled.

I kept moving, following Cat Sith, its tail twitching. As curious as I was about what was pushing through, I wasn’t interested in getting hurt by it. So instead, I kept pace, thankful that I hadn’t stopped my exercise program while simultaneously cursing the cold.

“What _are_ those things?” I asked, carefully timing my words so I wouldn’t sound out of breath.

“Servitors. The Fomor dare to rise out of the muck to strike at my queen in a time of perceived weakness.” That was unfair. While it was a little hard to tell any true intonation in the malk’s voice, given… malk, I could tell that he hadn’t been winded at all by our run. Then it hit me. Fomor. It was too early for them to show themselves. Why now?

Sith turned right down another corridor, and I felt the rush of wintry air as we passed through it. The sounds of fighting, of clashing blades and claws, grew louder as we approached.

“Stay close, mortal. Your life may well depend upon it,” the large malk said as we stepped outside. This was _Arctis Tor_. The courtyard was the size of a few football fields with buildings grown out of the ice itself that could have been barracks. Goblins and related fae exited some of them, running into the buildings and out with weapons. They passed us by without care, heading toward the fighting, charging en masse toward the gate, intent on clogging it with their bodies. Trolls stood above them, wielding massive bone clubs, and they clashed with things that I couldn’t make out through the snow. The interior of the fortress walls had multiples of the same windows that I’d looked out of, indicating more rooms like what I’d seen. The sky above swirled with snow clouds, and wind picked up, as if Winter itself wanted the attackers gone. Hell, maybe it did.

Sith seemed unconcerned of the army, barely even pausing before cutting left along the wall. It seemed that the malk intended on escorting me further into the fortress rather than showing me out. I couldn’t blame him either, even if it were simply his orders. Hell’s bells, the Fomor were attacking the fortress, led by or allied with someone or something that could use Hellfire. I shouldn’t have been here. From what I now remembered,  _Molly_ had been the one to be pulled here originally. So I’d prevented that… by taking her place. At least she was probably safe.

Then it happened. I smelled the brimstone as a wave of hellfire cut a swath into the goblins, and I made the mistake of extending my senses. I felt them burn, their pain as the Fires of Hell seared the flesh from their bones, first blackening, then bleaching their bones. The acrid smell of brimstone blew toward us from the gates, forcing me to turn my head, and I saw him step in through the carnage.

He was basically humanoid in shape, albeit gaunt, skeletal and grey-skinned. Curved pointy spurs of bone jutted from very joint, and his hair hung greasily and lanky from his knobby skull. Two pairs of eyes sat upon his face. Two were human, brown, and altogether too normal sitting on the face of a creature that looked like that, but above those eyes were a pair of brightly glowing green ones. A sigil the same color as his eyes glowed on his forehead, and I involuntarily shivered.

“Denarian,” I hissed out as the thorned demon moved further in. Wait. I knew who this was. “Sith, that’s Thorned Namshiel!”

Sith let out a noise that might have been acknowledgment and he cut right, away from the wall. I followed, and ahead of us, between a group of ice-wrought buildings, a snowbound hedge maze appeared. The walls of the maze were frozen-over hedges coated in snow, but something about them rang as off to my senses, as if they were only partially real. Of course, this being the Nevernever, they could have been simultaneously real and false. The malk cut down a hedge path, and after a few seconds, he let out a yowl. Behind me, the hedge-maze enclosed the path we went down.

As I followed the malk further into the maze, the scent of rotting fish hit my nose again. It got stronger as we continued further into the maze, but I trusted that Sith knew where we were going. As we turned down another corridor, we could see  _them_ . Their upper bodies resembled what would happen if you took a human and crossbred it with a gorilla, and their torsos were grafted onto the limbs of a cephalopod. Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn! Maybe… Well, maybe not actually with these things.

“Squirillas,” I tried out the word. It was as good a description as any for what these things were. “Why the hell did they have to use squirillas?”

Cat Sith ignored me, putting on a burst of speed before fading into the shadows, initially leaving only its fanged mouth visible in the shadows cast within the maze like some demented version of the Cheshire Cat. The squirilla noticed me first, and a simian growl escaped its jaws, but then Sith reappeared atop its head. Its claws dug into the creature’s cranium, tearing the head apart in a way that resembled pile of shredded cheese. The other two squirillas snarled and lashed out with their tentacles, trying to reach the malk. Sith faded into the shadows again, causing the squirillas to entangle their limbs.

I was torn on whether to help or not. Sith seemed to have this well in-hand, but they still fought back. No, I could do something, anything to help. I didn’t dare to try to use fire here; my skill with the element notwithstanding, this was the heart of Winter’s power. It’d die out before it got there. Fortunately, I had other options, despite how nervous I felt about this and the pain that still throbbed behind my skull. I could  _use_ that.

Slamming my hands together and channeling that emotion to the spot between them first, I prepared to cast the spell. I pulled my hands slightly apart, letting a spark of electricity grow within the small gap between them. I had no clue how well this would work on the creatures that Sith was fighting, but perhaps it’d stun them long enough for the malk to finish them off. Making sure that the catlike fae wasn’t in my way, I thrust my hands forward, crying out “ _Fulminara!_ ”

Lightning arced from my hands, slamming into and through the two living squirillas. The thunderclap that resulted afterward from the superheated air in this icy setting echoed throughout the maze, nearly stunning  _me_ , but after the flash of light and burst of thunder, the second squirilla’s head practically exploded outward, falling in chunks of seared flesh. That… hadn’t been entirely me… or even mostly me.

The third squirilla, on seeing its brethren fall, clearly decided to go after the attractive young wizard who attacked it. These things charged like hell on eight legs, tentacle after tentacle, it pushed itself forward, dipping down to use its fists to help grip the ground, and it was all I could do to get a shield up. Then Sith appeared on its head, mid-charge, and then seven hundred pounds of squirilla fell toward me, some bloody chunks included, bouncing off my shield.

“Impressive, young wizard, but do not tarry. These were but the first to breach.” Cat Sith’s tail twitched as if just offing three Fomor creatures was merely an annoyance to him, and honestly, given his position, they probably were. Then they came, the sound of howling dogs… only they weren’t dogs. Whatever they were, the creatures bore a passing resemblance to a dog in the way a velociraptor bore a passing resemblance to a chicken. They were ugly, big, and moving with purpose. They had to be following a trail. I remembered these beasts. Servants of the Denarians, but given how deformed they were, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were supplied by the Fomor.

“Sith, we need to go,” I said, not trusting my chances with these things, even with the Eldest Malk around.

“ _You_ need to go, mortal. Follow the path to the right of you, and head toward the tower.” Sith’s body began to fade into shadow once more, a sadistic grin the only thing showing. “Ignore those between here and there and climb up to the parapet. You will be safe from the invaders there.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked, moving toward the corridor in question. Surely the malk didn’t intend on—

“They are uninvited. I shall show them the error of their ways.” Cat Sith practically purred that out. “Now go, girl!”

I gave a silent wish of luck to the malk, and I dashed down the corridor he’d indicated. It curved left once, and then right twice. Then left twice more before it ended, but no junctions were in the way. Instead, it let out onto what appeared to be an open courtyard between me and the tower. No goblins stood here, no, instead… things lurked within the snow, within mounds. I could feel them, and when I looked closer at the mounds, I could see them. Dozens littered the outskirts of the courtyard, waiting for something, anything, but they seemed to ignore me for the moment.

They were fetches in their true forms. Vaguely humanoid, wavering uncertainly beneath the snow. I caught a glimpse of their bodies buried underneath, black as midnight shadows, but their eyes were a ghostly white. For now, they took no other shape, no illusion to scare me with. They were letting me pass to the tower, and when I got there, the ice parted. An archway appeared, and I stepped through.

It was good to be getting to a place of safety.


	35. Chapter Thirty-Three

Sith was out there somewhere, still in the hedge maze, maybe, dealing with the Denarian creatures. Thorned Namshiel would be one hell of a fight, even for the Eldest Malk, but I doubted that he’d go for anything straight on. No, the malk wouldn’t engage Namshiel directly. He was Winter’s greatest assassin, and if he obtained the chance, he’d strike the Fallen from behind. I’d done what he’d ordered. I’d come here. The interior of the tower was simple and shadowed with swirling lights that did little to provide any real illumination. A spiral staircase was the only thing inside, winding counter-clockwise up the spire. The primary illumination came from outside the arch.

I leaned against that archway for a second, pulling my senses inward and reinforcing my shields. Hell’s bells, without Molly here… I didn’t even know what I’d do. The malk had only escorted me further into the fortress, rather than leading me out, but given the forces arrayed against Winter, I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to get back even if I could leave. Heck, opening a gateway here would probably end with me on the other side of the world as my sister, and I didn’t want that. No, my best bet was to figure out just why Cat Sith had escorted me here in the first place. My best bet was to find a way to deal with the fae in such a way as to have them not screw me over. Wonderful. Still, I apparently was already up something when it came to Mab, so maybe there was some hope for that after all. I could always ask her to send me home if necessary.

Maybe.

The Queen of Air and Darkness wasn’t always the most… agreeable of people. Still, I hoped she was the one who’d directed Sith toward me rather than one of the other Queens. The Winter Lady, Maeve, scared me for a number of reasons that had more to do with her nature and character than her power. Mother Winter just scared me. If I never had to meet the Queen Mothers of Summer or Winter, it would be far too soon. Still, whichever Queen had directed Sith toward me, she was probably on the parapet of this tower, which meant…

I pulled away from the arch, looking up the stairs. Walking closer to the start of the spiral, I checked myself over. If something breached this tower, I might have to fight or run away, so I needed to see what I had available. My gloves were obvious; they kept my hands warm and I’d incorporated them as a part of the cosplay I’d worn today. Etched into their backs were the circles of runes that I’d used as foci, my right hand for projection of power, my left for my defense. I’d been tempted to flip it, given my hand preference, but I kept it as I’d been taught. Around my neck, I had my crucifix and pentacle, and that was more or less it when it came to my gear.

I lightly bumped something when adjusting my coat. Oh.  _That_ . The book I’d taken off of Sandy still sat in my coat’s inside pocket. I didn’t dare try to destroy it here, not when fire was unlikely to work well. No, I’d deal with it when I got home. If I got home… 

I started up the stairs.

The spiral staircase spun under my feet in a slowly ascending circle, each step wide enough to fit maybe two grown humans side-by-side, or one full-sized troll… or fetch. The low sickening light of the walls swirled around, adding a sense of unease to every step I took. It didn’t help that I probably had something of a concussion from Hammerhand’s blow. After a few steps of this, I brought out my crucifix and pentacle, channeled some of my belief and magic into them, and produced a wizard’s light. Outside, I could still hear the sounds of battle, faint and fading as I climbed, yet they sounded like they were getting closer. My legs, sore from the run, didn’t like that I’d added stairs to this too, but I knew I needed to make it up to the top.

The final stair came soon enough, leading to another hallway with low ceilings and an open archway a few feet away. Light came in through there, pale moonlight reflecting on the snow, reminding me of winter. I could only assume that this was where I needed to go, and I stepped through it, out onto the parapet of the tower. I hadn’t climbed nearly high enough to reach the roof.

I let out a small gasp as I stepped out onto the parapet-bounded roof, my empathy nearly being overwhelmed as I passed through some sort of warded barrier. Wait, hadn’t it only been shortly after moonrise before? Why was the moon higher in the sky? I knew time in the Nevernever was strange, but this was just bizarre. The rooftop was huge, maybe a hundred feet across, at least twice as wide as the spire beneath me. It teemed with life… People, fae, all feeling… off. I couldn’t quite make it out. Then I looked, and I gaped at what I saw.

It resembled a garden, of sorts, one made entirely out of ice. The whole roof was coated with it, ice, that is, and it somehow formed trees and flowers. Seats stood here and there in the garden, made of ice as well, and a fountain, frozen mid-spray, stood at the center of the parapet, with a trickle of water sliding from the top of a statue that had been so coated in ice that I couldn’t even make out a face. Vines and thorns spread out all over the place, made entirely of ice.

I stepped further into the garden of the parapet and the true nature of this place hit me. A frozen cardinal, red feathers highlighted through the transparent ice on it, sat upon a tree branch. Not too far from it, there was a web with a frozen spider. More and more things I’d initially assumed were statues… weren’t. They were beings frozen in ice. They were the source of the feelings.

The fountain had a beautiful young couple dressed in Byzantine-era clothes sitting next to it, a muted yet defiant love passing through them. Not far from them, a trio of Sidhe, fae nobility and obviously sisters, sat in a triangle, holding hands with expressions of fear on their faces and in their auras, and a thick, dead-looking tree held a man on it, seemingly crucified on its branches.

I frowned, looking around. Why show me this? Why have me here in the first place? If Mab had wanted to talk to me, couldn’t she have just come to Chicago? Or was this one of Maeve’s schemes, to get me here?

My jacket hung heavily on me as I moved closer to the tree. Bonds of ice held the man in place, transparent enough to see the blackened flesh of his hands and feet, darkness spreading upward through the veins of his arms and legs. His hair was long and unwashed, falling over his face as he fell over limp in his bonds. Layers of crystalline frost coated his body. He still lived though, under the ice. He was in pain, the numb sort of pain that one gets from repetition… and there was another pain there as well. Heartache. Something about the man was familiar. Not that I’d actually seen him before. I didn’t know the man’s face, but something about him had me remembering something. I just wasn’t sure what. It was on the edge of my memory. I hated that. “Who… who are you, exactly? What did you do to deserve this?”

“He betrayed Winter Law in an effort to destroy it,” my voice said, and a dread chill went down my spine. Power, discernible even here. It passed into me, and words escaped my lips that I hadn’t meant to say, words that weren’t my own. I let out a small gasp and looked harder around the garden, my attention drawn closer to the three statues of Sidhe standing in the triangle.

Though they were made of marble coated in ice, one seemed almost more fleshy than the others. Of course, through the layer of nearly transparent ice it wasn’t as easy to tell as it would have been without. The skin of the “statue” was pale, the color of freshly fallen snow, and she had a beautiful face, as all Sidhe Nobility did. Her lips were a bluish purple, the color of frozen mulberries, and her eyes, wide-open were emeralds with catlike slits. She wore an emerald dress that clung to her under the ice, emphasizing the curves of her six-foot tall body. Mab. Mab. This was Mab. I could feel her in there, roiling power like a winter storm, could feel it held back, intentionally, as a cold fury froze within her.

I looked back to the man on the tree. He was mortal, yet he was subject to Winter Law. There was only one that it could have been. “Lloyd Slate,” I hissed. “The Winter Knight. Here, all this time?”

“Until it is time for his release, yes.” Mab’s words once more left my mouth, and I narrowed my eyes. It didn’t hurt, exactly, but it certainly wasn’t something pleasant. “You know much that you shouldn’t, mortal.”

“By release, you mean death, right?” I asked, looking at the poor man. I knew what he’d done, what he’d tried to do. I knew his nature, and still I didn’t think he deserved _that_. The man was a murderer, a rapist, a thief, and worst of all, he’d tried to kill _Harry_. That didn’t mean he deserved the punishment he was getting. If I remembered right, it was so much worse. He shouldn’t have been suffering the way he was. It was pitiful. “Why not just kill him and be done with it?”

“Would you be the one to do it?” Mab asked me with my voice. “Would you slay him by your hand? Take his responsibilities upon yourself?”

Oh.  _Oh._ That wasn’t the kind of offer I wanted. That wasn’t… No. “I have no wish to become the Winter Knight.” I glanced back to Mab’s statue… to Mab properly. “No, I’m not doing that.”

“Pity,” Mab said, and I got the faint feeling of amusement among the cold storm within her. I was almost getting used to her using my mouth. “Until a new Knight is chosen, he must remain.”

“And you’re holding out for Dresden,” I said with a frown. “This isn’t why I’m here, is it?”

“Of course not,” Mab said, her emerald eyes twinkling within the frozen statue.

“And why, might I ask, am I here?” I cocked my head to her. “Why did the fetches take me to Arctis Tor?”

“Betrayal,” Mab said. “And risk. You were not at your safest where you were.”

“ _My_ safest? The fetches _killed_ people. They’d murdered four people that I know of, and they’d happily murder more if given the chance,” I said. “ _My_ safety never even got factored in. What do you want from me, Queen Mab?”

“That question, I believe, should be mine, mortal.” Mab laughed with _my_ laugh. It was strange, hearing her mirth with my voice. Then the laughter changed, and she made me laugh _her_ laugh. I wasn’t even sure what she was laughing about or what she found funny. 

“The only thing I want right now is for you to not do that again… why are you even able to do this?” I asked. “Talking through me… why aren’t you talking yourself?”

“Because as apt as your warning was, Faith Carpenter,” Mab said, and I got the distinct feeling of her rage building further. “It came only soon enough to save _some_ of my subjects.”

Well. That explained a lot. Too much, in fact. I was too late to save her daughter from a fate that would only end in her death. Mab  _knew_ what must be done, but she didn’t like it. Hell, she was pissed that something dared to corrupt her daughter at all. Any mother would be, and despite being the Queen of Winter, she was still human enough to love her child.

“She’s too stubborn to submit to what you’ve done for the Leanansidhe.” And I only had the vaguest of ideas of what she was doing to Harry’s godmother. If it was anything like Slate, perhaps I didn’t want to know, just as I didn’t want to know the specifics of Slate’s case. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to contact you in time.”

The emerald eyes of the statue looked down upon me, and another icy feeling passed through my spine. “You are but an apprentice, mortal. I am  _Mab_ . I do not need your pity.”

I blinked. That sounded suspiciously like Mab was trying to reassure  _me_ . To say that it was okay that I didn’t warn her in time to save Maeve, that she didn’t blame me. The surreal nature of this had me nearly thanking her for her consideration, but I chose not to. Despite being sympathetic, she was still Mab, Queen of the Unseelie. She was still  _fae_ . I no more wanted to be indebted to her than she wanted to be indebted to—oh. Right. She was still indebted to me. I didn’t know the value of the debt though, just that I had given her information… about  _it_ . The infection that permeated.

I pursed my lips, looking to Mab. “So, I’m here because I was unsafe where I was. Because of betrayal. Or was there another reason?”

I felt my lips quirk. She could control my facial expressions too? This link between us… was it because of the debt? Or was it something else? “You may become one of the Wise yet, child. Information you have given me, freely and without recompense. I ask thee, what is thy desire?”

I am not Harry Dresden. I would not sass the Winter Queen about her switch to archaic tones. Especially since she continued to use  _my_ mouth for this. No… I needed to think here. What exactly, did I want most at the moment? What could I get away with asking for?

Maybe… Maybe I could do something for Harry. Trade the debt for his and cancel it out. He might not  _like_ that I was willing to do this for him, but the wizard didn’t have a choice. I was the one here in Arctis freaking Tor. I was the one whom Mab owed a debt to. It’d be worth it, to help him.

“Dresden,” I said, clearing my throat. “He owes you, does he not?”

“He does,” Mab said, and my voice sounded pensive. Weird. Mab wasn’t stupid. There was no way she hadn’t cottonned on to what I was planning. The question was whether it’d work or not. To get him free.

“Can you cancel out his debt, using the one I have to collect on?” I asked. “I am his apprentice, after all.”

“Alas, Faith Carpenter, I will not.” More amusement among the maelstrom that was her fury. She didn’t say that she _couldn’t_ do it, just that she wouldn’t. Now, I just needed to not be dumb.

“Why not?” Well, that lasted a good three seconds. I did want to know why she wouldn’t. Why she wouldn’t take the deal.

“A great deal was given for his debt, child. Yours is unequal, as unfortunate as it is,” said Mab. “Now if, perhaps, you were to take on the mantle of Winter Knight, I might reconsider.”

Okay. So that wasn’t an option. I ended up shaking my head rather than being verbal here. I did  _not_ want to be the Winter Knight. I didn’t even know women could become the Knights of Faerie. I thought it was one of their sexist jobs. Apparently I was wrong. Still… I needed to pick something. If only this wasn’t so hard. If only I had her with me...

_Molly…_ My sister… she wasn’t here with me, nor was I with her. This wasn’t the first time we’d been separated, but this was the first time the two of us had been separated from each other by this much. The lack of her being there… it was ignorable initially because I’d been running so much, chasing Sith to get away from Namshiel. Molly wasn’t  _here_ . I could feel Mab reaching in, but she wasn’t my twin. She had her own twin sister, Titania. She had to understand how I felt, even now.

“I want my sister. I want to be with my sister,” I said, honestly. A chill passed over my body for a second, and then a burning feeling came from the pocket in my jacket. Another chill went down my spine, and an icy feeling spiderwebbed over my body, starting from where the book touched me, but it switftly became concentrated on my tattoos. My tattoos tingled at first as they activated, trying to throw off whatever was happening. This wasn’t what Mab intended. This wasn’t what I needed. My tattoos started burning coldly as Winter’s power suffused them, chasing out whatever it was that had tried to take it. I fell to my knees as the energy faded, and I stripped off my coat, letting it fall to the ground with a thump. I needed that book away from me.

Between gasps, Mab used my voice again. “What is it that you have brought with you to Arctis Tor, Venator?”

Of course she knew about that, but did she not know about the book? She wouldn’t have asked the question if it were anything but a surprise, but that had really hurt. The book. I didn’t know what was happening with it… why it had hurt me. It had been inert earlier, since Sandy had lost it, but that didn’t mean that it would stay dormant.

“It called itself the Source of Fear,” I said. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to huddle in for warmth now that I wasn’t wearing the coat. “It used the book to control Sandy. Like a posession.”

Mab’s anger spiked, and I found myself once more leaning forward. The rage… it was unlike anything I’d ever felt from a human before. Which made sense. Mab wasn’t human. Not anymore, anyway.

“And you happened to have this book in your coat,” Mab said. “Perhaps you are not yet ready to count yourself among the Wise, after all.”

“Weren’t you supposed to be sending me to my sister? Or bringing her here?” I asked.

“Child, had I known the book was there, I would have attempted another route,” Mab said. “Now you must suffer the consequences of your oversight.”

“But I want to go home! I want Mo—” A vine wrapped around my mouth, snapping me back from Mab’s statue and throwing me toward the fountain. I slid along the snow, bringing my hands up to stop me from slamming my head into it, and I couldn’t help but look at what was reflected inside.

Two creatures stood behind me: Scarecrow… and the Walker.

I wanted my mother. I needed my sister.


	36. Interlude: Molly Carpenter

I don’t know when I’d fallen asleep, but I couldn’t have been out long. Just long enough to find myself on a cot in the rectory of St. Mary of the Angels. The moment I woke, I instinctively reached for my other half, and… nothing. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere nearby. Where? I just… Fai… Ah. Right. They’d taken her. I could feel Mom, the jawas, Father Forthill and the man I—and Harry. They were nearby, but Faith wasn’t. Extending my senses didn’t help at all; it just let me sense more people, none of them Fai. She was… missing. I needed her back. I needed her safe.

As I sat myself up, I groaned. It hurt to move. I was probably still injured from what had happened, but I needed to know more about where I was if I wanted to help Fai. I looked around the room. I’d been here before; this was Father Forthill’s study. He had some bookshelves with various religious texts lining the walls, and he had a work desk that had a computer set up on it. It was turned off, of course, given that the power of two practitioners nearby would probably end up breaking it if it were on. A Jesuit crucifix hung on the wall next to the doorway, and the cot I sat on was along the wall opposite the bookcase. A cushy office chair was on one side of the desk, and two cushioned wooden chairs were nearby. One of the chairs had been facing my cot, and I could feel residual emotion from it, indicating that my mother had sat in it recently. I didn’t know what had called her away from the room, but it clearly hadn’t been all that long ago.

Stretching as much as my body would let me without increasing the pain, I took stock of myself. I’d tried to stop the phages from taking Faith, but my evocation work never was quite as strong as my twin’s. Normally I’d take solace in that my illusions were better than Faith’s, but illusions hadn’t helped there. Elemental evocations hadn’t helped at all either, and with how quickly Hammerhand had managed to move, there hadn’t been any time for Fai to bring up her shield. She’d been knocked out almost instantly, and Scarecrow picked her up. I’d tried to get her back, used some wind to try and get the phage to drop her, but Scarecrow shrugged it off like it was nothing. They were after Fai, not me, and everything I did to try and get my twin away from them just got me more hurt. I think they were even trying to feed on me as despair built up, playing with me the way a cat plays with their prey. It got to the point where I had to run, had to climb… Hammerhand couldn’t make it up to the treehouse, so I’d climbed up into it, collapsing down to the wooden floor. I worried then that they’d come up and get me anyway, but they left, taking Faith with them. The last thing I remembered hearing was Scarecrow’s laughter as he stole my sister as I passed out from the pain they’d caused, and then I woke up on the ground outside with Harry nearby.

I shivered at the memory and then let out a small yelp as the pain spiked. I looked down at myself. Someone had given me proper first aid treatment; my arms had splints on them, cuts ands crapes were covered in gauze and bandages, and there was a melted ice pack that had fallen to the floor next to me. I must have knocked it off when I sat up. I could move my arms; I didn’t think anything was actually broken, but I wanted to make sure before I moved further.

The door to the room opened up, and Mom came in, followed by Forthill. On seeing me awake, Mom hurried over and wrapped her arms around me gingerly. I attempted to return the hug the best I could, given my bandaged state.

“Molly,” Mom said. “I’m glad you’re awake. When you’d passed out in the car… I got worried. I wanted to bring you to a hospital, but Mister Dresden reminded me that it wouldn’t necessarily be the best idea.”

“Yeah,” I said, my voice a little raspy. It wasn’t a good idea at all. There was so much machinery at the hospital that kept people alive or allowed the doctors to monitor them. It was the reason Faith and I hadn’t been to visit our comatose friend much. If we’d been the reason his life support failed, we could never forgive ourselves. “Probably for the best...”

“Besides, Molly,” Forthill said, his blue eyes twinkling. “You are lucky in that you only sustained some minor injuries.”

“If I’m only hurt a little, can the splints come off?” I asked, looking at Mom with pleading eyes.

“Fine,” she said, and she started to undo what was holding them in place. When the first finished, I stretched my arm again, hissing slightly at the pain, but I grit my teeth to bear it. I’d need my arms if I was going to be of any use to getting Fai back.

“Where’s Harry?” I asked. I could feel him nearby, but he hadn’t joined the two of them on the way in. Guilt also showed in what I could feel from his aura. What did he have to feel guilty about? It wasn’t his fault that Faith had been taken. It couldn’t have been.

“The last I saw, the wizard was sitting in one of the pews,” Mom said, glancing back toward the door. She was worried about something… probably either Faith, me, or the both of us. I just… Okay, I could function, but Faith needed to get back.

“Is he waiting for something?” I asked. Harry wouldn’t just sit around with one of us missing. It wasn’t his style. He’d be doing what he could to get us back. “I mean, isn’t he going to look for Fai?”

“He’s waiting for me, actually, and I wanted to wait until you woke.” Mom sat on the cot next to me. “I’m going to make sure that he finds your sister and brings her back.”

“I’m coming with you,” I said, rubbing my arms as I felt a chill go down my spine. I couldn’t let Mom go alone to find her.

“Molly, you’re hurt,” Father Forthill said. “Surely it’d be best for you to stay here and recover.”

“I’m recovered enough.” I stood from the cot, wincing at the pain, and leaning on my mother for support as she stood with me. “I’m going to find my sister.”

Mom stared at me, clearly judging the strength of my resolve. Faith clearly got that from her, even if she really didn’t realize what she was doing when she did it. I couldn’t let Mom unnerve me if I was going to rescue my sister from whatever trouble she found herself in. Then, after finding something about me satisfactory, she nodded.

“Come on then. Let’s find the wizard and see what can be done to find your sister.” Mom led me out of Forthill’s office and into the rectory proper. We passed through the office areas and the living area that I could see all the jawas curled up asleep in, and we made our way to the corridor that connected the rectory to the church proper.

St. Mary of the Angels is beautiful on the inside. The pews are all lined up with the Roman arches leading up to the altar. Behind the altar is a curved painted fresco of the Virgin Mary among the angels in Heaven. Above, on the curve under the windowed dome are the words “GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST,” and behind the altar is a pure-white tabernacle with some more Catholic iconography carved onto where it is stored.

Mom and I found Harry sitting toward the back of the church, looking almost like he wanted to fall asleep right there. He stood when he saw the two of us, and he looked us over.

“Grasshopper, not that I’m not glad to see you up and around—”

“I want to help, Harry.” I crossed my arms, suppressing a wince and meeting Harry’s gaze without flinching for a half second before he turned his eyes away. “Faith’s my twin. We need to find her.”

Harry looked from me to my mother, and she nodded. “Tell her what you told me, Mister Dresden. She’s your apprentice, same as Faith.”

“Okay, okay.” Harry looked back to me, crossing his arms, seemingly waking himself up more. Well, more than seemingly. His emotions definitely came back together rather than drifting toward sleep. “Okay, from what I was able to tell about where the phobophages were attacking, it’s obvious what they are now. They’re fetches.”

“Fetches,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “Like faerie-style fetches?”

“You remember,” Harry said. “There was this statue at the convention, one that had all sorts of horror iconography.”

“Yeah, Fai did that on commission,” I said. “Best piece of metalwork she managed to get done at that size.”

“Yeah, it turned out great. Too bad that it was placed in the middle of a power overwhelming pentagram.” Wait, what? I’d been in that room. A power overwhelming pentagram had the star poking out of the circle. There wasn’t anything like that in the viewing room. There was just the metal circle Fai’d used to demarcate the best viewing points… for the… Wait.

“The shadowbox display locations.”

Harry nodded. “Yeah. Combined with the iconography and the mirrors… they’re fetches. Winter fae.”

“Wait, does that mean the Winter Queen sent them?”

“I don’t know,” Harry said. “The statue drew them in, sure, but I’m not sure why she would have any interest in taking Faith.”

I did, but this was a secret that Harry didn’t know about my twin. Faith’s summoning of the Winter Queen a year and a half ago ended with her telling Mab about something that she shouldn’t have been able to know. I didn’t fully understand it, but I was fairly sure that if she or I  _tried_ , we’d be breaking the Seventh Law.

“Regardless,” Mom said. “We’re leaving now, Molly. Mister Dresden is going to find out where Faith was taken over to Faerie so we can go retrieve her.”

“I’m still not sure that’s a good idea.”

I gave Harry a look. While he might have been the man I loved, sometimes he could be a bit dense. “We’re going, Harry. Mom’s good to drive.”

He nodded and stood, towering above the two of us, and we left the church, leaving my siblings and Mouse together with Father Forthill. He’d take care of them.

The moment we stepped outside, Thomas had fallen into step beside Harry, on the other side of him from my mother and myself.

“This is Thomas,” Harry said, waving to him. Mom hadn’t ever met the vampire formally, to my knowledge. She hadn’t had the chance before Fai and I ran away. “He’s more useful than he looks.”

“I have a black belt,” Thomas said, and I shot him an incredulous look. That was the excuse he was going with?

“You’re the White Court vampire that took my husband to that strip bar.” Mom said, after arching an eyebrow at Thomas for about a second. Oh! I remembered that story. Of course, if it was anything like the strip bar that Thomas had taken Faith and I to in order to leave the Nevernever after Cecelia… Well, I suppose Daddy wouldn’t have been happy either way. Mom would have found it comical if it were the one that Fai and I ended up at. I hope.

“Hey, it’s nice to be remembered. And work with someone who has a clue.” He glanced to me and then to Harry. “For a change.”

“He’s a good guy, Mom,” I said.

“Oh?” Mom turned her gaze upon me, and I suppressed a shudder. There wasn’t venom in that voice, but I knew she could develop it. “How would you know that?”

“He fought alongside Daddy, and he’s trying to reform.” I didn’t want to go into Venatori things, not with Mom, and definitely not with Harry. So I’d say something that’d work more. “Plus, y’know… he doesn’t _feel_ like he’ll be hostile.”

“Oh.” Mom knew about my empathy. That was one area that Faith and I were completely equal, though we were stronger together and more versatile. She knew enough to trust it. Still, she turned her attention back to Thomas, now a little more relaxed but still with caution. “Regardless. You need to understand that what you are gives me reason to regard you with suspicion. Please don’t do anything to deepen it. I do not remain passive to threats.”

Thomas pursed his lips, clearly mulling it over, but he was unoffended. Respect is what flared up within him. “Understood, ma’am.”

“Good,” Mom said as we reached the van that hadn’t been crushed by a wild fetch. “You get the rearmost seat. Molly, you’re up front with me.”

“And me?” Harry asked.

“Wherever,” Mom said.

I climbed into the passenger seat and buckled my seatbelt, leaning on the window some. I was still hurting a bit, but I thought I’d be good. Definitely would with at least a little more rest, and it’d take a bit of time to get to Harry’s place, especially with us stopping by home first. I heard Thomas, Harry and Mom talking about Mouse’s breed, some sort of Caucasian or Mastiff or something, and then I closed my eyes for a second.

I opened them again as the van came to a stop in front of Harry’s apartment building. Thomas was shaking his brother. Harry must have passed out for a bit, the same as me. I couldn’t blame him. While I wasn’t entirely sure what had happened before he’d shown up at our place, Harry looked like he’d been through the wringer. His busted hand looked somehow even moreso, and while I’m sure Fai would have known what happened to Harry here,  _she was still missing_ . Ultimately, that was the most important thing.

I stepped out of the van and waited for Harry to do the same. Mom was at my side the moment I did it, supporting me. “I’m okay, Mom. I can walk.”

“Molly, you’re still injured...”

“It’s Fai, Momma. I can’t let her be hurt.” I couldn’t let any of my family be hurt. That was the responsibility of the oldest sibling. Yeah, Fai and I were twins, but she was the second born. Which meant _I_ was responsible for _her_. No matter how often she claimed the reverse. I glanced back to Harry as he got out of the van. “Harry’ll find her, and we’ll get her back.”

“I know,” Mom said. “He’s been good about things like that.”

Harry said something to his brother about calling Murphy and someone else. Something about a marker. Thomas took the sheet of paper, and Harry turned to us.

“Hair?” Harry looked to Mom, and she gave him a white envelope.

“Thank you.” Harry walked toward the apartment and we followed. “Grasshopper, you still remember?”

“Yeah, I’ve got them,” I said as I lowered the wards on Harry’s place. He hadn’t changed the sequence to unlock them.

“Good,” Harry said as he turned toward the door. “I’ll be working downstairs. The three of you should stay in the living room. Please be as quiet as you can, and don’t walk around too much.”

“Delicate work?” I asked.

“Something like that. I need everything I have to find where they took Faith, and I don’t have a lot of time to do it. I’ll explain later.”

“I can’t help?” I looked to my mentor, and he shook his head.

“Not this time, Grasshopper.” Harry opened the door, and we went inside. Mister, Harry’s alarmingly huge cat, came over and rammed his shoulder into Harry’s legs, something that is always amusing to see. He then imperiously wound his way around between Thomas’s legs, incurring a ew scratches behind his ears, and then he came to do the same to Mom and me.

I moved to sit on the couch as Harry went to take a shower.

“Molly, want anything?” Thomas asked as he went to the fridge.

“A Coke,” I said. “I’ve slept enough.”

“Got it. Mrs. Carpenter?” Thomas asked Mom.

“I’m fine for now, thank you,” Mom said as she sat next to me. “So, how _do_ you know the vampire?”

“Harry, mostly,” I said, once more leaving the Venatori thing out. It wasn’t something to be shared with her. I glanced to Thomas, and he gave a slight nod with a feeling of affirmation. Good. He’d back me up on anything I said. Still, best to be mostly truthful. “He and Harry work together a lot. Thomas is about as trustworthy as anyone can be.”

Mom nodded. I knew she could tell there was more, but it wasn’t my secret to tell. Thomas brought over the Coke can, and I opened it, sipping the caffeinated goodness. The shower noises faded, and Harry made his way down into his subbasement lab.

Thomas, conversely, went over to the phone to make a few calls. Murphy being on her way was a good thing though. Karrin Murphy was definitely someone I wanted at my back when going into the Nevernever to rescue my sister. I briefly considered calling Drew, but I didn’t know if he had his cell phone turned on. While I’m sure Fai would have appreciated him coming to rescue her, if he got hurt  _again_ , it might just break my sister. No. Drew had to stay behind so that Fai wouldn’t have to worry about him.

Mom bowed her head and started praying. I could feel the warmth of her faith suffusing her, and it made me want to join her a little. I didn’t, though. I needed to think, and while talking with God was great for hoping something would work, my best thoughts rarely happened during prayer. He understands, of course. He wouldn’t put us in situations that He didn’t think we could handle.

Instead, I sipped my coke some more, and then the hairs on the back of my arm started to stand up. Harry was working some sort of magic down there, and then… nothing. He closed a circle around something powerful, and… well, I wasn’t able to tell what he was doing inside the circle. He’d grabbed… hair. Wait, he was going to use  _hair_ to find Fai? Even if it was my hair or her own hair, it wouldn’t work.

My tattooed skin tingled in memory. Great.

“He won’t find her,” I said suddenly.

“What?” Mom asked, stopping her prayer and giving me a sharp look.

“The tattoos,” I said. “They’re more than just normal ink. We weren’t sure that people wouldn’t try and track us down magically. They help hide us from most forms of tracking spells.” I stood up.

“So the hair...” Mom trailed off, looking at me.

“Wouldn’t work,” I said. “Besides, what kind of hair was it?”

“One of yours,” Mom said. “I took some from you as you slept in the car. Just a strand.”

I pursed my lips. If Fai and I  _hadn’t_ had our tattoos, that would probably have worked fine. She and I are about as thaumaturgically linked with each other as we could be. She was my other half, and I was hers. Still, hair… Hair was dead cells. Add that the two of us had dyed our hair recently… even if the tattoos weren’t there, it might have damaged the ritual. No. Hair wouldn’t be able to bypass the protections of our tattoos. “Won’t work. The tattoos will block it.”

“Should you go down there and let him know?” Mom asked.

I shook my head. “I’m not going to interrupt his working of delicate stuff. That could be dangerous.”

“Then, perhaps, the two of us should pray together,” Mom said. “Maybe you’re wrong about the tattoos, maybe you are not. You’ll have to bring it up with him when he comes back up.”

I nodded and sat down next to her. Now that I knew… I prayed that I could figure a way around this. The tattoos. Fai and I both had them. I prayed to the Lord that there was a loophole that we could exploit. We needed to save my sister. I didn’t want to find her a husk, drained to death by some fetch. She needed to be home, alive.

After a bit, Harry climbed out of the basement into the living room, and Mom and I stood to face him. He shook his head, and Mom glanced to me before sitting down again. I placed my hand on Mom’s shoulder. It wasn’t like that was an unexpected answer. The tattoos probably weren’t factored in.

Harry made his way over to the kitchen, and I stayed standing near Mom. After speaking with his brother, Harry made his way back over to the two of us.

“I thought I could find her. I’m sorry. I...” Harry shook his head, and I pursed my lips.

“Thank you for trying, Mister Dresden,” Mom said.

“But you don’t have the full story, Harry,” I said. “I realized it while you were down there.”

“It was the hair dye, Grasshopper, not your fault. It had stripped away some of the link between the hair and you… and by extension her. What do you mean I don’t have the full story?”

“Harry, did you try and track us down at all while we were away?” I asked. “Tracking spells to locate us for Mom and Dad?”

“I didn’t have as much time to do that as I would have liked,” Harry said. “I never could figure out why they stopped working.”

I pulled up my shirt, revealing my midriff and the tattoo on it. “This. Fai and I had reasons for getting them, but they stop us from being tracked in normal ways.” Among other things.

He looked at me for a second. “You couldn’t have mentioned this earlier?”

“Did you give me the chance?” I asked. He hadn’t really, but I hadn’t remembered until he’d already started his thing. “Harry, we’ll find her.”

“And we’ll bring her home,” Mom said.

Harry shook his head and looked to the fireplace. It really was startling to feel how much despair he had over this. I think he blamed himself for Faith being taken. I couldn’t see why. It easily was Parker’s fault, not Harry’s.

“For all our power,” I said, grouping myself with Harry. “We’re still human. Prone to mistakes.”

“It’s not good enough,” Harry said. “We need to get her back.”

“Have you done all you can?” Mom asked.

“Yeah,” Harry said after a moment of thought.

“That’s all we can ask,” Mom said, and then when Harry looked confused, she elaborated. “We have done all we can, and we will now have to leave it up to Him. Trust that He will show us the way. Have faith that we will find Faith.”

“I’m not all that faithful,” Harry said.

“It’s okay,” I said.

“I have enough for all of us,” Mom said. “We’re not alone in this fight. We need not be afraid.”

I nodded… and then it clicked. The loophole. I snapped my fingers. “Harry, you can use me.”

“What?” Harry asked, and then I realized what I said, my cheeks pinking. Mom looked ever so slightly unamused, but she wasn’t angry at Harry.

“My blood, I mean,” I said. “You were already using my hair to link to Fai. But those are dead cells, even without the dye affecting it. They’re outside the tattoos. My blood is _inside_ , and she’s my other half, my identical twin. It should work.”

“That might work,” Harry said, and then after a second, he nodded. “Might even work better for these purposes.”

I nodded and started toward the subbasement door. “Well then, Mister Wizard, shall we find Faith?”


	37. Chapter Thirty-Four

Things made no sense here. I now knew that Scarecrow and his ilk were Winter’s creatures. What the heck was it doing standing alongside an Old One? The Walker wasn’t the true He Who Walks Behind, not any more than he was when Molly and I had fought him back in the hotel. I’m not even sure why the Source of Fear chose to take that form here, given it literally could have any other form it wanted. After all, this was the Nevernever, wasn’t it? Why would it still be focused on  _my_ fear? Was it because I’d been the one to bring the book here? Was it because this thing had been the last form the Source had taken, and since it was an Old One, whatever true form it had once taken was now unknown to mortals due to Venatori action?

That sounded plausible, but honestly, the point was moot. I pushed myself off the edge of the iced-over fountain, turning to face my aggressors. I didn’t need a reflection to see the Source of Fear here. The creature in the Walker’s form was perfectly visible next to the Scarecrow, though the fetch dwarfed it by a few feet, easily. I knew that this wasn’t what either of them looked like truly, at least probably not, but I didn’t dare open my Sight to look. Never, ever, will something convince me to open my Sight in the Nevernever.

The pair just stood there in front of me, and I felt more fetches approaching. The Reaper was nearby, as was Hammerhand, the blindsiding bastard. Scarecrow’s burning eyes stared at me into my soul, and its carved mouth widened into an inhuman grin. I shivered at what I felt off of it. Unadulterated hunger wafted off it like smoke, infesting the area with its psychic stench, but what came from its companion… it was indescribable, save for being similar to what I’d felt within both Parker and Sandy. An unknowable feeling… was it perhaps just something new? Or something remarkably old?

See, emotion is practically universal. Add in mind-altering substances and brain damage, and there’s a whole spectrum of emotion that a human being can feel at any given time, a veritable sea of it. Most beings map to human emotions pretty easily, and it takes a truly alien mind to have emotions that were unrecognizable at all.

As for the Source of Fear, which had taken the form of He Who Walks Behind, its emotions were like that: strange, unknown, and incomparable to anything I’d ever encountered. I’d felt it in the convention center, and I could feel it now. It had an alien intelligence to it, and given that I didn’t and wouldn’t know its true name, wouldn’t ever know what it truly was or much about it at all, my best guess had to work. It was one of the things that the Venatori were created to fight and eliminate. The Oblivion War called for its extinction for the survival of the human race.

“Little mortal, alone in the heart of Winter,” Scarecrow said, widening his vine-like arms. “What does it feel like to be so lost?”

“I _wasn’t_ lost,” I glared at the fetch. I’d been talking with Mab… well, more accurately, she was talking through me, but semantics. We were having a conversation. “I was talking to your queen, and I’m sure you know how she feels about interruptions.”

“Mmm… but she _isn’t_ his queen,” the Source of Fear purred out, his inhuman voice. “He and his ilk are _mine_ to do with as I please, and they are happy to serve.”

I felt a chilling bristle. Mab. She was listening in, but she was in no position to directly interfere. It had to rankle, being unable to directly take action while she was recovering from whatever she’d done to stop the Adversary’s advance. She couldn’t help me now.

“Not lost,” I repeated, glaring at the fetch, imagining fire bursting to life on it, but this was the heart of Winter’s power. Even if my glare could cause fire, I’d be better off trying to start one with a pair of icicles in the middle of Antarctica. “And the fetches are members of the Winter Court. They have been for centuries.”

“Perhaps,” said the Scarecrow. “But that is none of your concern, little mortal.”

How many fetches were up there? Scarecrow for certain, Hammerhand and the Reaper I could feel at the edge of my senses, as if they weren’t on the roof. Maybe they were in the tower? I felt more… one other for certain on the roof, but I wasn’t completely sure. I couldn’t tell for certain that Scarecrow and the other were the only ones, not with my shields as they were, but I didn’t dare to try and adjust them. The Source of Fear had already been through my thoughts once; I didn’t want to give it another shot at doing so. Even with that, I could feel my heart racing as my body reacted to the danger I was in. I was a lone mortal half-trained wizard on the roof of Mab’s tower in Arctis Tor. I’d lost the protection of the Winter Queen thanks to these things, and there was no way I was going to be able to do anything to any of them on my own.

“No, but I do know what is _your_ concern though,” I said, focusing my will. I’d only get one good shot at doing this. I’d have to mask my fear with bravado, something that wouldn’t work a hell of a lot, but it would hopefully be enough to buy just enough time. “Right now, your concern is me, not Mab. Oh no, what can one little mortal do? What you forget is that I was trained by Harry Dresden.”

Scarecrow’s smile seemed to get wider as those fiery eyes burned a mark across my soul. “What is a mortal to one such as I? What can one such as you do?”

I smiled, feeding my fear into the energy I gathered, and I unleashed it. “Run away!  _Soukotte!_ ”

As time slowed down around me, the snowflakes froze mid-air. Yeah, this was a smart idea. I ran across the rooftop, thankful that my boots managed to grip the ground well enough, and I made my way toward the door down. I wasn’t going to stay on this roof a moment longer. Just three more steps and I’d be—I slammed shoulders first into a door that hadn’t been there before, dropping out of the spell-enhanced speed boost.

Then I noticed three red lights tracking across the snow, moving up the parapet’s walls. It locked onto something above me, and the red lights shifted. That was all the warning I got as I ducked down. A ball of some sort of cold electric energy, or something that looked remarkably like it, passed over my head and slammed into the inner parapet, exploding in a shower of sparks. My eyes tracked where it came from, to another movie monster. It was humanoid, more or less, standing at what had to be just over seven feet tall. It wore brown leather pants, and it had fishnets over the yellow skin of its chest. Metal pauldrons adorned its shoulders, and its face was covered by an all too familiar grey mask. Atop one of the pauldrons was a gun, and attached to the mask was its targeting laser.

“Are you kidding me?” I stepped to the side as a spiked chakram passed through where I’d stood. “Are you seriously trying to kill me? I won’t be good food dead.”

Scarecrow stood impassively, letting the alien creature in front of me extend its arm such that blades came out from its gauntlet.

Yeah. Okay. So I couldn’t leave the rooftop. Scarecrow and the Source of Fear in Walker form were observing what was happening, and the freaking Predator was hunting me. Well, I wasn’t going to be easy prey. I was a wizard, for crying out loud. I could do this. I could. I just needed to ball up all that anxiety, all that fear, and all that doubt. Fire was mostly useless here, and my fire wouldn’t be helpful besides.

I still had lightning. “ _Fulmina!_ ” 

I thrust my right hand out, and lightning arced toward the alien, but a sudden movement had it barely taking a glancing blow. It moved, running toward me, and I turned to my side, running away across the roof. If I couldn’t get a proper hit on it, there wasn’t any way I’d be able to deal any sort of damage.

The ice next to me exploded as a second ball of energy hit where I’d last been. This thing was actually trying to  _kill_ me. These things weren’t following Mab’s orders. They were acting entirely on their own, led by the alliance between the Source of Fear and the Scarecrow. What was he to them? 

I spun around another statue of the garden, and this one survived the plasma burst. Mab must not want her prisoners released that easily. If the fetches followed Scarecrow’s lead, that meant that Scarecrow was probably some sort of ranking fetch. Yeah, I remembered something about that now. It was the Eldest. Strongest of them all, which was probably why it wasn’t even worried about Mab coming after it.

I turned right as another blast of energy passed, winging the tip of my coat and burning it off, leaving a smoldering edge. Right, one more try. This time, I aim for that freaking gun of its. Stronger spell too.

Spinning around and sliding backwards on the ice, I turned toward the Predator-shaped fetch. I slammed my hands together, pulled them apart as I channeled this spell. A spark of lightning formed between them, and when I thrust my arms out, I cried, “ _Fulminara_ !” Lightning shot out of that spot, slamming into the Predator’s shoulder, and spreading over the creature’s body.

The gun sparked and exploded, falling off the pauldron. The creature tore off the mask, revealing the inhuman face beneath. Yellow scaled skin covered its face, and it had beady black eyes set too far into its head. It had two brow ridges and a central ridge that led to its hair down its back. It spread its mandibles and opened its jaws, letting out a roar that threatened to drown out the sound of the wind overhead.

I let out a cry too, and I readied myself for what I knew had to be coming as I came to a stop with my back to the parapet. Giving one hesitant look back, I saw how far it was to the ground, and I steeled myself. If this didn’t work, I was probably dead. Surviving the next few minutes was crucial.  _Please, Lord, let this work._

After another roar, the creature charged, and I stood there, waiting, focusing on the creature. Idly, I could feel other fetches approaching, so if this did work, I’d still have things I needed to do, but they didn’t matter. What mattered was the here and now.

Twenty feet. Without its chakram and gun, it had no real ranged options. If it’d had its spear too, I probably would have been dead as it used it as a javelin. If I failed here, I was dead anyway.

Ten feet. I gathered my will and split it. This wasn’t going to be an easy thing to pull off, but I was in Arctis Tor. I was in the Nevernever, and if I could pull it off anywhere, it’d definitely be here.

_There_ . I thrust my left hand out and made a scooping motion with my right. The words I said didn’t matter here, which is why I cried out, with a bit of gravitas, “Mudana!”

My shield popped into existence in front of me, but it wasn’t shaped in its normal way. No, instead it was shaped such that it would form a scoop, a ramp of a sort, and the burst of wind behind the fetch was all me. Okay, mostly me. I  _may_ have taken some of the wind from above to fuel it. I  _lifted_ , and the charging fetch went over my head, flying off the tower and completely away from where I was. I swear, I might have imagined it, but I thought I heard the Wilhelm Scream as it fell.

Better than the Goofy yell, I suppose.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I scanned the rooftop. The Reaper and Hammerhand were coming through the warded doorway, somehow bypassing it with ease. Was it simply warded against mortals? It didn’t matter. They had spotted me at the same time I did them, and my muscles tensed. I wasn’t going to let myself be caught. I thought, for a second, about what they must have looked like beyond the guises they wore, but I couldn’t let myself look beneath them without using stronger senses than I dared to. I needed what reserves I had to avoid them.

I remembered how fast Hammerhand was, how quickly he’d be able to cover that ground between us. I wasn’t going to let him get the drop on me again. As the Reaper started past the fountain, his sickle gleaming in the moonlight, I noted that neither the Scarecrow nor the Walker were there. I still felt them nearby, but… where? I couldn’t pinpoint them. I only saw Reaper and Hammerhand. I needed to survive, and not knowing where these enemies were… I don’t know. I’d have to figure it out. Survive until Mom and Harry got here. That was the goal.

Scarecrow or no Scarecrow, I needed to move before the Reaper and Hammerhand got within striking range. Channeling some of my remaining energy, I whispered, “ _Soukotte.”_

My world slowed once more, and immediately sprinted to the side, barely avoiding Hammerhand’s oncoming blow. He’d slowed down just as much as the Reaper, but his speed was absurd. Even now, he looked like he was moving through water as opposed to the painfully slow movements of the Reaper. Empty  _night_ . If I dropped the spell, I was paste. I ran toward the center of the rooftop, hoping that I’d be able to have multiple directions to run if I needed to. 

A clawed hand grabbed my shoulder and a vine wrapped around my ankle. They pulled in opposite directions, the claws digging into me as I fell, slamming backward onto the icy rooftop. More vines wrapped around me then, wrapping up around my waist, and they lifted. I saw the grinning maw of the Walker and the vines led to the burning-eyed Scarecrow. My spell dropped as Scarecrow slammed me into Slate’s tree, pushing me up against the opposite side as the frozen Winter Knight. I saw stars and nearly cried out in pain from the impact. The frozen branches were as knives, tearing into my coat and stabbing into my flesh.

The Scarecrow slammed me again, holding me there as the Walker passed across, running his claws down the front of my body, digging in and pulling out. Shallow cuts.

“Little mortal, did you think you could get away?” Scarecrow asked, as a vine traveled up my shirt, passing over the lines cut by the Walker. The vine curled around and pat at my face. I grit my teeth, holding in my pain. I wouldn’t let him scare me. He couldn’t.

My vision flared red as the Walker dug into my stomach and then my arms. Rivulets of blood beaded from the shallow cuts, soaking into my clothing. My heart pounded, and my throat tightened. Oh God… I wasn’t going to escape. They were  _hurting me_ , and I wasn’t going to escape. No. I couldn’t let them see. I couldn’t be afraid.  _I must not fear_ . “Blow it… out...”

“Mmm… little one, did you think that you would be rescued?” purred the Source of Fear as it drew its claws across me, creating more shallow cuts. “Did you think you were _worth_ rescuing? Little Faith Carpenter, you don’t belong. You never belonged...”

No. It was wrong, wasn’t it? They were coming, weren’t they? Harry? Mom? They’d done it for Molly, but she was home safe. I was the spare. The false one. I didn’t matter. God. Was I going to die here? Was I going to die  _alone_ here?

It tore into me some more, and I nearly bit my own tongue to keep from screaming.

“Let it out, mortal. I can taste your fear,” Scarecrow said. “Many like you before have fed me and mine, and many more will again.” He pulled me away from the tree only to slam me back into it. “You are nothing but a meal. That is what you are good for. _This_ is where you belong.”

Tears streamed down my face and I panted, refusing to cry out. All I had was this last act of defiance. A preparation for my Death Curse. I didn’t want to die. God, I wanted to live so much. They were going to take it away from me. God, I didn’t want to die.

“Nothing...” I repeated, tears streaming down my cheeks, and the Walker dug his claws into my side again. I whimpered, my vision clouding. If not for the cold, I probably would have lost a lot more blood. “Nothing… follows...”

“Scream for me,” The Scarecrow slammed me into the tree again, and I hissed. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. I God, why weren’t they here? Were they really not coming? I needed them so badly. “Scream for me!” Another slam, another nearly bit lip as I held back my cries of pain. I didn’t want. I didn’t want to fear more, but I did. This thing scared me so much.

“Never,” I said, spitting blood out from my mouth. No. I wasn’t going to. Even if they never came. I wasn’t going to.

The Scarecrow’s eyes turned a burning crimson, and vines spread over my body. Over my clothing, under my clothing, it didn’t matter. No. I couldn’t. I just… God, what was it doing? What was it planning on doing? I wanted it gone. Gone. Gone! Let it get off. I wanted it off of me. To let me go. It had to let me go. Just. Let. Go.

_Let me go. Nonononono… God… Please… God… Help me._

A vicious grin came to Scarecrow’s face. “ _Scream for me_ .”

I couldn’t help it.

I did.


	38. Interlude: Charity Carpenter

For a long time, I had been unfair to Harry Dresden. I suppose it was partially because of what he represented. He was a member of the White Council, a powerful wizard, and he did what I had been unable to allow myself to do: he fought evil with his magic. I had nearly lost my life due to my actions with my own. When he’d taken over the training of my daughters, whose powers outstripped anything I’d ever had on my own, I hadn’t been happy, but I’d accepted it for their good. I would have preferred that they’d left their talents be, let them fade, but my daughters weren’t willing to do that. They leapt into the learning without even consulting me first.

I wished they had. Maybe they would have been more careful. Maybe Faith wouldn’t have been captured by the Unseelie for whatever nefarious purpose the Winter Queen had for her. As their mother, I’m supposed to keep them safe. Finding out that she’d been taken without me being able to stop or prevent it? It was terrifying to think that she might be in danger without me. I needed to save her myself. I couldn’t just rely on someone else.

Which is why I drove to where Dresden had deduced that Faith had been taken to the Nevernever. I pulled into the parking lot outside a rundown old movie theater, just out of view of the street. The sun had risen as we drove, but the rays passed through heavy clouds with a hint of thunder echoing through the sky.

Lieutenant Murphy parked next to me, and we filed out of the van, Molly standing at my side. Dresden looked at the vampire and the officer and started his briefing on faerie.

“All right, Murph, Thomas,” Harry said once outside. “Faerie Fighting 101.”

“I know, Harry,” Thomas said.

“Yeah, but I’m going to go over it anyway, so listen up. We’re heading into the Nevernever. We’ve got some wicked faeries to handle, which means we have to be prepared for illusions.” He reached into his backpack and pulled out a jar. “This is an ointment that should let you see through most of their bullshit.”

He applied some under his eyes and then passed the jar to Murphy and the vampire for them to do the same. When he was about to put it away, I took the jar and applied some under my own eyes before holding it out for Molly to do the same.

“What are you doing?” Dresden asked me.

“I’m preparing to take back my daughter.” Really, I would have thought it would have been obvious that I wasn’t going to leave it to the wizard alone.

“You aren’t going with us,” Dresden said. “Neither of you are.”

“Harry, she’s my _twin_.” Molly crossed her arms and leveled a look at the wizard. I had to choke down a bit of pride I felt at that. “I’m not letting you go without us.”

“You’re hurt, Grasshopper, and this will be seriously dangerous. We can’t afford to babysit.”

I rolled my eyes and placed the lid back on the jar. After placing it back into the wizard’s backpack, I went to finish my preparations. I pulled out an arming jacket that I had made out of Kevlar, carbon fiber and cotton, belted it on and then got out my mail. After securing that into place, I put on a sword belt and my cap and helmet. I opened the second of the two plastic tubs I pulled out and retrieved a straight sword and a hammer, balancing it across my shoulders.

Molly, for her part, slipped on an arming jacket over her clothes, but she did not don any mail. Instead, she adjusted her bracelets and pulled out two wands, intricately carved.

“She makes all of Daddy’s armor and spare weaponry, Harry,” Molly said with pride in her voice. “And we’ve trained with her.”

“Oh,” Dresden said, swallowing what must have been some comment or another.

“They’ve taken my Faith, and neither Molly nor I will remain here while she is in danger, Dresden,” I said. “Molly, put some mail on and take a sword.”

“Right, Momma.” Molly followed orders, pulling on the mail and securing a sword belt. She secured the sword next to her wands on the belt. I wished that she’d go for the swords first, but I was pretty sure she’d go for the wands. It didn’t matter. She would do what she needed to keep herself safe.

“Ma’am,” Murphy said quietly. “Practice is different from the real thing. Molly, you know.”

“This won’t be my first fight,” I said with a nod, and I swung my hammer up onto my shoulder, daring Dresden to say no.

“Fine, you can come, John Henry,” Harry said. “Grasshopper, stick close to your mother. I don’t want her having to gear up for you next.”

“All right, Harry,” Molly said, blowing a strand of pink hair out of her face. “I’m not going to let anything happen to her or me.”

“There are extra weapons in the tub and additional coats of mail,” I said, gesturing to it. “They might not fit you terribly well, Lieutenant Murphy.”

Harry nodded. “Mail’s pretty good for discouraging nasty faerie beasties with claws.”

“I prefer guns to swords,” Murphy said. “Are you sure about this?”

“Guns might not work all that well there,” Harry said. “Reality’s not exactly the same in the Nevernever, and it doesn’t always warn you when the rules change. There’s some areas of Faerie where gunpowder doesn’t combust.”

“You’re kidding,” Lt. Murphy said.

“Nope. Get steel on you. That’s one thing faeries can’t deal with. It’s the biggest edge mortals have on them.”

“The only edge,” Molly and I said in unison, and then I passed Dresden a mail shirt. He removed his leather duster and donned the armor, slipping the duster on overtop of it. Murphy and Thomas both took some armor themselves.

“Couple more things. No eating or drinking anything inside,” Harry said, looking to each of us. “Don’t accept any gifts or any offers from a faerie interested in making a deal. You don’t want to end up owing favors to one of the Sidhe, believe me.”

Molly winced almost imperceptibly. Harry seemed to miss it as he frowned, but I didn’t. What did she know? Harry spoke up again. “One thing more. Each of us must do everything possible to control our fear. The fetches feed on it and it makes them stronger. If we go in without keeping our fear under control, they’ll sense a meal coming. Yeah, we’re all afraid, but we can’t let it control us.”

“Fear’s the mind-killer, eh?” Molly joked.

“Something like that, Grasshopper, but it could end up the people killer too. Keep yourselves as calm as possible. Got it?”

I nodded along with the others.

“All right then. Everyone hat up and sing out when you’re good to go.”

“You don’t wear hats, Harry,” Molly commented.

“Shush, Grasshopper. You know what I mean.”

I helped Lieutenant Murphy secure her armor. Her mail was a short-sleeved shirt, one of my spares. We belted it in tight, but the sleeves fell to her elbows, and the hem was almost at her knees. It was more like an armored dress on her than an armored shirt, such was the difference in our height.

The vampire managed to make the mail look attractive enough that I had to mentally remind myself what he was. He wore black clothing, black combat boots, and he managed to make the arming jacket and mail go with the rest of his wardrobe. He had a saber on his belt on his left side, and in his right hand, he held a shotgun. He looked remarkably good in it.

After I finished with Murphy, I adjusted Molly’s armor, making sure that everything was secure. Then I turned toward the building and steeled myself. We could not let these creatures feed upon us. We couldn’t afford to have any fear with us. So I knelt down and crossed myself.

_Lord God,_

_Guide us this day as we venture into the land of spirits to retrieve your daughter. Guide our hands as we face against evil, that we might be able to stay true to our cause. Take from us our fears, our doubts as we face those that would feed upon them in order to rescue Faith, and keep each of us safe. Keep safe your child Harry Dresden as he leads us in this, your lost child Thomas Raith as he overcomes his limitations, your child Karrin Murphy as she stands with us, and keep my daughter Molly safe. Allow her to do what she needs to to be reunited with her twin and together may my daughters be returned safely home._

_May we all, Lord. Your will be done._

_Amen._

I crossed myself again, letting Molly help me to my feet.

“Ready, Momma?” she whispered, and I placed my hand on her shoulder.

“Ready. You don’t have to go if you’re afraid, Molly,” I said.

“She’d do the same for me. In a heartbeat.”

I nodded, and I glanced to Dresden as he made his way around the building. When he finally returned to us, he nodded.

“Anything?” the vampire asked.

“Nothing outside, but there’s definitely something inside the theater.”

“Fetches?” Molly asked, her face stoic.

“Yeah.” Dresden nodded. “Smaller than the ones that we’re after, but they’re probably here to guard the doorway between here and the Nevernever.”

“So they’ll ambush us when we go in,” Murphy said.

“Probably,” Dresden said. “We can use it against them though. When they come, hit them fast and hard. Doesn’t matter if it seems like overkill. Let’s not get any injuries.”

“So, why aren’t we going in now?” Molly asked.

“I’ve got more help coming,” the wizard said. “I can’t keep the portal between here and deep Faerie open for more than a few seconds, even if I wasn’t tired.”

“What would happen if you tried?” I asked.

“Bad things. We’d die, most likely. Trapped in deep Faerie near all sorts of trouble. No way to escape but to find our way to the portions of Faerie that are near Earth. The locals would eat us before we even got the chance to escape.”

“Nice job keeping us unafraid, Harry,” Thomas said.

“Shut up, or I’ll start with some knock-knock jokes.”

“So, if you can’t open the door long enough for us to get Faith, how exactly are you planning on letting us do so?” Murphy asked.

“I’ve got help on the way. She’s just… not exactly able to help me.”

I gave the wizard a look and he held up his hands in a placating gesture. “Look, she’ll be here soon, and you’ll see.”

Soon after he said that, I heard the roar of an engine, and tires rustling on the asphalt of the road. I glanced over as a motorcycle carrying two riders pulled into the parking lot. The rearmost rider swung down from the bike, a somewhat attractive looking woman in leather pants and a denim jacket. She removed the green helmet, revealing a head of snow-white hair. It fell perfectly into a silken sheet without the help of any sort of brush or comb. There was no way she was entirely human. Her green eyes passed over each of us, and she gave a slight bow to the wizard.

Her partner was a young man of medium height. He was slender, but his muscles were lean cable. His shoulder-length hair was white, much like his passenger. He wore close-fitting black pants, a billowing green silk shirt, and a rapier with a sturdy guard on his hip, and the leather wrapped around its handle worn smooth and shiny.

Dresden introduced the pair as the Summer Knight, Fix, and the Summer Lady, Lily. He gave all of our names to them, but he didn’t go into much detail before he thanked the Lady for coming.

“I am yet in your debt. This was the least I could do, but I must warn you that I might not be able to give you the help that you require.” So, she was the one that was supposed to help but wasn’t able to? I needed to get to my daughter. Jumping through these hoops was exasperating.

“I know you can’t help me,” Dresden said, and then he looked me briefly in the eyes before looking back to them. “But, I wish to tell you that the onus of your debt to me has been passed to another in good faith. I must redress a wrong that I have done to the girl named Faith Carpenter. To do so, I offer her mother your debt to me as payment.”

Wait. What? These were fae, weren’t they? Did it work like that? What did the wizard mean by a wrong done to Faith? It wasn’t his fault that she’d been taken in the first place, was it? I didn’t see how it could have been.

The Summer Knight had laughed a little while the Summer Lady turned to me and asked, “Do you accept the wizard’s offer of payment, Lady?”

I glanced over to Dresden, and he nodded. This must have been part of his plan to get Faith back.

“Yes,” I said, my voice choking up a bit. “Yes, of course I accept.”

“Very well, so mote it be.” She bowed her head to me. “I owe you a debt, Lady. What may I do to repay it?”

Molly nudged me after a second, and I nodded. “Help us retrieve my daughter, Faith,” I said. “She’s a prisoner of the fetches of the Winter Court.”

“I will do all in my power to aid you,” said the Summer Lady. “But it might not be as much as you desire. I dare not directly strike at the servants of Winter acting in lawful obligation to their Queen, save for in self-defense. The consequences could be grave, and retaliation immediate.”

“I have a plan,” Harry said. “I’ll distract the fetches inside while you veil the rest of everyone. When they attack, drop the veil and attack. Then, we’ll need you to open the way where they crossed over when they took Faith.”

“Do you agree with this plan, Lady?”

I blinked. “It… seems like it would work. Let me get this straight. You’re not allowed to assist Harry, but because he has… what, passed his debt to me?”

“Banks buy and sell mortgages all the time,” Harry said.

“Because he’s given me your debt to him, you’re able to help?”

The Knight and Lady exchanged a glance but said nothing.

“They’re under a compulsion to not talk about it directly with anyone,” Harry said. “But you’re pretty close to right, Charity.”

“Wait, so would Titania be angry if they help?” Molly asked. “I know she doesn’t like you, Harry.”

“Who said that?” Harry asked.

“The Faerie Queen?” I glanced to my daughter.

“One of them.”

“Don’t worry about us, kid.” The Summer Knight winked. “Titania laid down the law. We’re obeying it. It’s not our fault she didn’t say exactly what she wanted.”

“Great,” Molly said and made a face. “So, she’s going to be upset, but she won’t do anything. Right. It’s okay, Momma. Let them help.”

I nodded, and I readied myself for the first phase of the rescue. My daughter needed help, and we were going to get her.

*********************

The theater had been a battleground of magic and steel. The fetches had been eliminated, and we’d only taken minor injuries. Dresden needed first aid, given to him by the vampire, and Molly had held her own. I was proud of her. I, on the other hand had ended up flat on my back due to one of the creatures knocking me over in the shape of some sort of doll. I didn’t know the film, but Dresden and the vampire seemed to.

Harry stood over me, offering me a hand up. I took it. “Are you all right?” he asked.

“Nothing broken,” I replied, and then I winced. My back flared up. “I should have stretched out.”

“Grasshopper?” Harry asked.

“I’m okay. My shields held.” Molly strode next to me. “That all of them?”

The Summer Lady’s eyes lost focus for a moment, and she murmured, “Yes. There are no longer agents of Winter in this place. Come.”

She led the way into the theater proper, the doors opening without anyone touching them. We followed. It appeared to be an old-style movie theater with only a slight incline in the floor. Light played over the screen, which, given that the projector wasn’t on, was strange. Colors shifted, faded, changed and melded like that of the aurora borealis, and I was pretty sure that the color and light twas being projected from the other side of the screen, something that should have been impossible.

Molly’s face grew ashen as we approached, the air getting colder. “Fai mentioned this once, Momma.” Molly’s voice was quiet, so that Dresden couldn’t hear it. “Something about me, about Arctis Tor, the heart of Winter.”

“And she’s ended up there herself,” I said.

“Yeah.” Molly shook my head. “Fai, I didn’t want this to happen to you. It didn’t have to happen to either of us...”

“We’ll get her back, Molly. I’m sure of it.” I squeezed my daughter’s shoulder, and then hefted my hammer. “Are we going?”

“This is Arctis Tor,” the Summer Lady said. “My power will be limited because it will interact with Mab’s volatilely.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“My power will act violently when encountering that of Mab. I can open the way to Arctis Tor, but holding it open for you will occupy the whole of my strength. Furthermore, so long as I hold the way open for your return, there is the risk of Winter creatures running free in Chicago. This means that Fix must remain here to guard the passage against them. I can’t in good conscience send him with you.”

“So, we’ll be on our own when we head in,” Molly said, and Dresden made a face as the Lady nodded.

“We’ll deal with it,” I said. “The Lord will guide us to our objective, leading us to my daughter.”

“Right then,” Dresden said as we stepped up alongside him. “Everyone, get a hand on my shoulder so we can stay together.”

After we did so, Harry nodded to the Summer Lady, and she closed her eyes. The colors on the screen brightened to more vibrant colors, and the air grew colder. Deep blue dominated the colors on the screen, and a moment later, it etched out the shapes of mountains towering beneath the light of a moon of silver that couldn't exist. The mountains were wreathed in mist and wrapped in snow and ice. The wind blew snow into our faces, small ice crystals that hardened for a second before the wind lulled.

We saw Arctis Tor for what it was a moment after that: a fortress of black ice, a cube sitting high up on the slope of the highest mountain in sight. A single spire rose above the rest of the structure, and flickers of green and amethyst energy shone within the ice of the walls. It was enormous, with the walls and battlements lined with inverted icicles. A single gate stood open, small in comparison to the rest of the fortress.

The gateway was open. We glanced back toward the Summer lady, and she gestured to Harry with one hand. A fiery butterfly that she’d used on the fetches in the theater fluttered over to Dresden.

“This much I can do for you all,” said the Summer Lady. “It will lead you through the storm and ward away the cold until you can return. Do not tarry. I know not now long I will be able to hold the way open for your return.”

“Thank you, Lily,” Harry said, and she smiled warmly at him.

“Good luck, Harry.”

The Summer Knight accompanied us to the other side of the gateway, stepping to the side once we were all there. The howling winds very nearly caused me to close my eyes, but whatever the Summer Lady did, I didn’t feel the cold.

“We’re going to find her, Momma,” Molly said, looking to Arctis Tor.

“I know,” I said, placing my hand on Molly’s shoulder. “And when we do, we’ll take her from whatever has her.”

Dresden stepped up to us, clearly finished with whatever his conversation was with the Summer Knight. “Ready?”

We nodded, and we started off toward Arctis Tor, led by the burning butterfly. Without its warmth, we might not have made it, but even with the magic, the terrain between the fortress and us wasn’t very friendly. Molly and I had hiked quite a bit when she was younger, but it seemed that both Lieutenant Murphy and Thomas weren’t used to such hikes, especially with armor and weapons. After Dresden, Molly and I traded glances, we started helping them out. Harry helped Thomas while my daughter and I helped Murphy. Happily, she wasn’t too proud to accept the help.

We paused at the last bit of stone that would shelter us from view, and we looked on. There was some sort of wavering shadow between us and the fortress, but that wasn’t what drew my attention. The gate appeared to be open at first glance… but…

“There’s a broken lattice of ice on the ground around the gate,” I said as I peeked out over. “A portcullis?”

“Could be,” Harry said. “Inside too. I think there are some heavier pieces there. Like someone ripped the portcullis apart and blew the gate in. The gate to Mab’s house.”

“That… isn’t good.” Thomas looked to us.

“Fai...” Molly said, biting her lip. I found myself doing much the same. Then she blinked. “I can feel her. Guys, she’s in there, and she’s scared.”

“Let me see if I can’t narrow it down, Grasshopper,” Harry said, walking over to an open area of rock. He did some sort of spell, I assume a tracking one, and then he crossed fifty to sixty paces and did the same.

“Huh,” Molly said, watching him. “I thought Fai and I were creative for thinking of that.”

“Hmm?” Thomas asked.

“Triangulation and using body parts,” Molly said. “He’s not using his pendant to track Fai.”

“He _is_ more experienced than you, Molly,” I said. “You’ll probably come up with other tricks that he hadn’t thought of later though.”

She nodded as Harry made his way back.

“Grasshopper, you were right. She’s alive and in there,” Dresden said. “Let’s go.”

“Wait,” I said, holding up my hand. “May I say a brief prayer for us first?”

“Can’t hurt,” Harry responded. “I’ll take all the help I can get.”

I smiled at the wizard and bowed my head. “Lord of hosts, please stand with us against this darkness.” A quiet settled over the area, and I finished the prayer, crossing myself. “Amen.”

Murphy and Molly echoed my amen, crossing themselves while Thomas and Harry stayed quiet, but they were there. When we finished, Harry started forward, breaking out into a jog.

We passed the first bones on the way to the gate, maybe fifty yards from the walls. They laid in a crushed, twisted jumble in the snow, vaguely human, but some had been pulverized to dust in some places and warped like melted wax in others. There were more like it as we got closer to the gates, and by the time we got there, we were shin-deep in icy bones. They spread on either side, a wheel of remains centered on the gate. The portculis had definitely been smashed, and pieces of gate had been blown inward.

Dresden pushed through the bones and the gate, making a path through them that was waist-high on him. He stopped once we were through and sniffed.

“What is it, Harry?” Molly asked.

“Sulfur,” he said quietly. “Brimstone.” Hellfire, I didn’t mention aloud. I doubted I was supposed to hear it. One of the Fallen must have attacked. That explained why the gate was blasted open, why there were bones lying there at the entrance. We stepped inside, passing through the fortress. I held my hammer at the ready, and Molly did much the same with one of her wands, but I was proud to see that her other hand went toward the sword at her side.

The interior of the fortress was bleak and symmetrical. Rooms and chambers were either not there, or they were invisible to common view. We passed by more bones, large and broken. The meat had been seared from them, and whatever was left had disappeared in the Nevernever’s time strangeness.

Thomas drifted over to one in particular, poking at it with his drawn saber. The blade scraped on a skull too big to fit in even an oil drum, and way too heavy and thick to be human.

“What the hell was this?” Thomas asked quietly.

“Troll, probably,” he said. “Big one, maybe fourteen, fifteen feet tall.” Nearby, there were another six skulls nearly the same size, and six more were near the base of the spire. “Give me a second, I want to see what we’re up against before we go on ahead.”

Pre-empting more questions, Dresden moved forward before I could do much more than take another position to guard.

“Momma, I can feel Fai...” Molly said, looking toward the tower. God, the expression on Molly’s face. Faith must have been in pain for her to grimace that way. “She’s...”

“I know, sweetie. We’ll save her.” I followed her gaze to the tower. “Harry...”

The wizard came back. “Thirteen of them. The trolls were Mab’s,” he said quietly. “I can’t tell how long they’ve been dead for. It could have been any amount of time, given the weirdness of the Nevernever.”

“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “Faith’s in pain, and she’s in there.”

“Then that’s where we’re going,” Harry said, leading the way. We stopped close to the tower.

“How do we get in?” Murphy asked.

The tower’s walls were blank. No visible entrance was available, and given that my daughter was in there, I needed to deal with this. “Check behind the trolls. If they were covering any sort of retreat, they should be near the entrance.”

Harry nodded. “Maybe.” He made his way over to the tower, and he ran his hand over the black ice. He walked further around before stopping. “Nothing here.”

After he rapped his knuckles on the tower, he turned back toward us. “Maybe the trolls just wanted to fight with their backs against something solid. I might have to go all the way around checking for—“

The ice of the tower parted, and an archway appeared. The ice that had hidden it flowed seamlessly into the rest of the tower. Molly and I simultaneously moved forward, ignoring that we didn’t know what to expect. Faith was in the tower, and we’d find her.

“Come on, we have to hurry...” I said, gripping my war hammer and holding its handle parallel to my spine.

The moment we started to approach the opened doorway, fetches burst from the snowdrifts and mounds of bones. Unlike in the theater, here the ointment did its job and we could see through their glamors to their true forms. They didn’t look like movie monsters. They were only vaguely humanoid, wavering uncertainly as they tried to shift toward our fears. They were black as midnight save for their ghostly white eyes. And they were in my way.

Dresden waved his staff in a circle over his head, and he cried out “Veritas cyclis!”

Wind picked up, thundering down into the silent courtyard, and it gathered along his staff, fluttering with hellfire-laden lightning the same color as the burning runes on his staff. I was once again reminded that Dresden had picked up the coin of Lasciel to save my son from doing the same. He hurled the winds at the bones, and a cyclone of broken bones and shattered armor slammed into the fetches, sucking them into it. Those that stopped before getting into the cyclone hissed in anger, and two fetches charged us as we made our way into the tower. 

Thomas and Murphy took on one fetch each. The vampire took on one that had gleaming black talons, an illusion superimposing a machete over them. Thomas caught the claws with his saber, but instead of the ringing of steel on steel, there was a flash of green-white light, and the fetch howled in agony as the blade sheared its claws from its hand.

The vampire crouched down and carved an X into the faerie’s abdomen. It roared in agony as liquid green-white fire burst from the injury. The creature slammed its other arm at Thomas, pushing him into the side of the tower.

Murphy’s gun barked out twice, and then she snarled, “Damn it!” She bobbed to the side as a second fetch swung an axe-illusioned arm down at her. The blow crashed into the courtyard with a loud impact nearly as loud as a rifle. She moved closer, inside the reach of its axe-hands. It tried to thrust at her, but she grabbed on,using its momentum so that it cut its own shin. It bellowed in pain and lost its balance. Murphy shoved it away and she jumped toward the tower door.

I moved inside with Molly as Dresden pulled the vampire inside behind us, and then my daughter’s scream echoed down the tower, loud and shrill. Molly’s face paled, and I knew then.

“Fai!” Molly called and she started up the spiral staircase. I wasn’t far behind her, chasing my daughter’s screams.

“I’m coming, baby!” My daughter was in pain, or she was afraid, and I wasn’t going to let that happen much longer. Vaguely I noted Dresden following us, as we climbed. Step after step, we made it up the spiral staircase as we heard Faith scream again. We stopped when we reached the landing as a door appeared to block our way.

“Faith!” I screamed at the closed door, just as Dresden reached us. He reached out toward the door, and he was doing some sort of sensing.

“Charity,” Harry snapped. “It’s faerie make! The hammer!”

I nodded. Iron. What stopped fae. “Clear the door!”

Harry and Molly both hurried back, and I brought the hammer back. “Please,” I whispered, begging God as I planted my feet. “Please, Father, Please.”

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. This needed to work. I needed to get through and save my daughter. I swung the weapon further back, and in a golf-style swing, I struck, stepping forward. The siege door that had formed screamed and shattered like glass when my hammer struck. The tower itself rang with the power of the blow, and the floor shook.

Then, a sudden burst of pain came from my hip and arm and I glanced at the hammer. The head had shattered, and a red-hot piece of it had cut across my hip, lodging into a ring of my mail. It glowed red-hot, and I had to slap it out lest it burn me more. The one that had struck my arm hadn’t lodged there, but it had cut me in a way that meant I wasn’t going to be using it for anything. Other pieces of shrapnel had struck the walls of the tower, creating a network of cracks throughout the tower. It melted where the steel struck, and the tower rumbled again.

Dropping the handle of the hammer, I grimaced. With my right arm the way it was, I couldn’t use a weapon there. So I made an awkward left-handed draw of my sword and readied it. Harry slipped up on my left, and Molly on my right as we made our way out onto the roof of the tower.

I might have been more appreciative of the ice garden had it not been for the fact that Faith was there. Instead, my eyes only looked at one thing. At the base of the tree in the garden was Faith. The costume she’d been wearing was shredded to tatters on her, and they hung from her as loose rags. Her black hair hung limply and tangled on her head, and her eyes locked onto Molly the moment she stepped alongside me. Her expression was twisted into pain, and her mouth was open. It took me a second to realize that she hadn’t even stopped screaming. She’d just damaged her voice-box and no sound was coming. It didn’t stop her from trying.

“Fai...” Molly whispered. “You didn’t have to...”

Behind the tree stood the Scarecrow, a pumpkin-headed thing with burning red eyes. Its limbs, all long, tough vines as thick as Dresden’s wrists, were clothed in tatters of black that looked more like a funeral robe than a farmer’s castoffs. Its arms trailed almost to the ground, and one of them was stretched out to Faith. At the end of the arms, the vines tapered into dozens of slender, flexible tendrils, and the Scarecrow had them wrapped around Faith’s throat, stomach, and under her clothing, wrapping upward into her hair.

I had no clue why this one didn’t look like the fetches down below, but that didn’t matter. I needed to save my daughter.

“Momma, stick close to me. I have an idea,” Molly said, and I stepped up to her. She whispered a word, and we disappeared.

Dresden, by contrast, made himself known, stepping to one side and waving to the Scarecrow.

“Hi,” he said. “Who the hell are you?”

“One who has served the Queen of Air and Darkness for far too long,” he replied. “One who has destroyed hundreds like you and will again.”

“You know what, Captain Kudzu?” Harry asked as Molly and I crept closer. “I’m not here to play guessing games with you. Give me the girl.”

“Or what follows?”

I glanced around the rooftop. Two more fetches stood opposite the Scarecrow. One wielded two sledgehammers while the other had protruded claws, that I could picture being scythes. Neither seemed to notice Molly nor I as we approached where Faith was being held down.

“Bloody constraint,” said Harry, quoting Shakespeare. “For should you try to hide the girl from me, even in your heart, there shall I rake for her.”

Dresden could be impossible. Apparently the Scarecrow thought as much. “Little man. Move an inch closer, and I will crush her soft little neck.”

“Inadvisable,” Harry said, raising his own wand and leveling it at the Scarecrow. “Because she’s the only thing keeping you alive right now.”

“I fear you not, wizard,” said the Scarecrow as he narrowed his eyes and focused entirely on Harry. “Bring your fire, if you think it may survive the heart of Winter. It will do no better against me this time than the last.”

“Ah, but last time I was unprepared,” Harry said. “The Council’s already on their way here. I’m here to make you an offer before things go to hell. Give me the girl and your word not to go near her again, and I’ll let you live.”

The Scarecrow laughed. “I shall enjoy killing you, mortal.”

Molly and I crept closer, my sword’s weight holding well in my hand.

“You know what your problem is?” Harry asked.

“What?” the Scarecrow asked, with a look of incomprehension on its face.

“You underestimate people.” Harry sneered, and I knew it was time.

I stepped forward, and I sliced into the vines holding Faith with my sword. The blade hissed and flashed, searing its way through the limb holding Faith.

Scarecrow reared its head back into a roar of rage, and Faith’s body buckled in panic as the limbs contracted on her throat. Harry lifted his staff, and with a call of “ _Forzare_ !” Faith was swept upward, flipping upside down away from the Scarecrow as it attempted to smash the ground where Faith had been. 

I stepped into place and gestured toward Faith. “Molly, protect your sister.” I turned toward the Scarecrow as it tried to find my daughter again. I brandished my sword at it willingly. “You will  _never_ touch my daughter again.”

A mother’s job is to protect her children. I would do that now.


	39. Chapter Thirty-Five

Oh God… Scarecrow had broken me. He’d broken  _me_ . I gave into the pain, gave into the fear. I couldn’t. Why couldn’t I? I wanted to do more, but I couldn’t stop screaming. The pain. It  _hurt_ . I didn’t want anymore. He was going to do more. God, I knew he was going to do more and more and more and more and I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t stop him. He was going to kill me. Murder me. Eat me, discard me and I was going to die. I didn’t want to die. Please, God, I didn’t want to die. I really didn’t want to.

_Fai, we’re coming…_ Molly’s voice. I was imagining it. There was no reason she’d come here, no reason that she’d put herself in danger. She was the important one. She deserved everything, but I didn’t want to die here. She wasn’t here. 

I couldn’t stop screaming. It hurt to do so, but I couldn’t stop myself, even as my voice gave out. I could feel them feeding on me, drawing my fear into them, taking my energy. The Scarecrow tightened his vines, holding me in place. God, he could do whatever he wanted to me. I didn’t want to. No, God, I really didn’t want to. Why couldn’t I focus enough? Would a spell powered by fear even hurt it? Maybe. Maybe if I had Harry’s power. I could have done something with Harry’s power, burn him or something, but I couldn’t even make a spark.

I tried to scream more, but my voice had given out almost completely. What came out must have been more a wheezing sound almost like a whimper. I didn’t want to die. He was going to kill me. The Scarecrow was going to kill me, and I was going to die again. Lord, please. I didn’t want to die again. Was this the fate set out for me?

God, I was almost to the point of giving up hope, but then I heard it. I  _felt_ it. The icy tower rocked as the warded door exploded. The ringing of steel on faerie-enchanted ice echoed over the garden, but before I could try and look, Scarecrow tightened the vines around me. I tried to cry out again, but the sound didn’t come.

_We’re here, Fai. Everything will be alright._ Molly sent to me… Molly was here! She was here, and that meant that Mom and Harry were here… I could feel them now too, and down the stairs was… The vines tightened again, and I screamed.

The Scarecrow spoke, but I couldn’t see who to nor hear what was being said. Tears streamed down my face as I tried to writhe my way out of the vines. I needed to get away. Molly was here.  _I could feel her_ . Mom was here. Harry was here, and I wanted to be with all of them. I didn’t want to be here, trapped in the grip of a monster. 

Suddenly, the vines supporting the ones that held me against the tree slackened, and I was falling. The ones around me, however, squeezed tighter, and I let out a soundless yelp as I tried to get out of them as best I could. I couldn’t move. Scarecrow would get me again if I didn’t, but I couldn’t move. The vines were too tight, too constricting. The fetch reared back as if to hit me again, but before he could, a wave of force swept my feet upward, sending me tumbling past Slate’s tree into a snow pile on the ground.

Mom. I saw her, wielding a sword in one arm while the other hung limply. God, she looked like an avenging angel standing between me and the Scarecrow, even with that injury. She was my mom… I just…

“Molly, protect your sister,” Mom said before turning back to the Scarecrow. “You will _never_ touch my daughter again.”

Momma… She put herself in danger for  _me_ . She shouldn’t have had to do that. She wasn’t a wizard or Knight; she had no supernatural powers. She was… she was doing this for  _me_ . My mother had come for  _me_ , and she’d brought my twin and Harry. I even felt Murphy and Thomas nearby now that the wards were gone. I hadn’t expected this. Maybe I should have. 

“Come on, Fai,” Molly said, pulling at the vines on me. As she pulled them away from my throat, I took in a deep breath, but they still held, too strong for human hands alone. Molly slid me along the ground as Momma slashed at Scarecrow. Perhaps inspired by her, but constrained by space, Molly pulled out a knife and cut the vines away from my body, the iron blade passing through them with ease. Once I was free, she wrapped me into a hug.

“Of course we’d come to get you, moron,” Molly whispered. “You’d do the same for us.”

I didn’t get the chance to respond. Molly rolled me a few feet to the side, jumping over me. A sledgehammer slammed where we’d been. Hammerhand. I knew that Scarecrow hadn’t been the only fetch up here. Molly glared at it, reaching down to her belt.

“You’re not going to touch her, fetch!” Molly said, and I felt her gather her will into a familiar spellform. “ _Soukotte_.”

Molly used my haste spell, speeding her awareness, though my own remained unchanged. Her hand flashed into her pouch and in front of my face, rubbing some sort of ointment on it. Then we were sliding across the ice as she came out of the spell. Another hammer slammed down. The hammer lost definition as Hammerhand pulled it back, fading to a translucent image surrounding a club-like hand.

Hammerhand was the illusion around the actual fetch, something to fear. I could see that now; it looked a lot like what I’d seen on my way to the tower. The ointment cut through the glamour somehow.

I moved us this time. Hammerhand reared back to strike again, but I slid Molly over to my side and rolled with her, yelping soundlessly as I did so. It  _hurt_ still, even without the vines, but we needed to move. The ice cracked on the club’s impact, digging a small crater. 

The fetch snarled at us, no longer bothering to sound human.

We raised our right hands, gathering our will and pouring the pain into it. This thing wouldn’t touch us.

“ _Fukukaze!_ ” One voice begat twin torrents of wind as we unleashed our spell. Wind swept into the fetch, pushing it across the icy roof, past the frozen sidhe. We climbed to our feet, wobbling only a little before steadying ourselves. Keeping an eye on Hammerhand, we looked around for other issues.

Mom and Harry kept the Scarecrow occupied. For some reason, it looked the same with the ointment as without, which meant that it actually looked like that for some reason. No illusion surrounded it at all. Some sort of shapeshifting, probably like the Source of Fear.

The Scarecrow slammed its vines down toward Mom, but she sidestepped out of the way. When the vines curled toward her, Mom ducked down and stabbed at the Scarecrow’s body. The stab-wound dripped with steaming goo lit up like green-white flames. The fetch seemed unfazed despite this.

Harry had pulled out his blasting rod. Runes lit up along it as he channeled his power, and its tip glowed a bright red. “ _Fuego!”_

Fire leapt from the rod’s tip, streaming toward the Scarecrow in a solid bar of white-hot fire. The bar thinned the further it got from Harry, Winter’s wellspring leeching the heat away until it faded to nothing two feet from the wizard. Mortal fire was not welcome in the heart of Winter’s power.

A flash of movement had us raising our left hands. Swiftly gathering our will, we cast in one voice, “ _Boeirai!_ ”

A translucent green bubble popped up around us just as the Reaper slammed a hand full of thick-bladed talons into it. It held. Good. Around that hand was a translucent version of the monster’s trademark sickle. It reared back and slashed at our shield again, causing us to slide a little backward.

While individually our shields weren’t as good as Harry’s—we had neither his strength nor experience—together, we came close. This spell was designed for the both of us at once, and despite the injury of one of us, we could hold it. Unfortunately it wasn’t without its weaknesses.

The Reaper slashed at our shield again. The shield absorbed the blow, but we shot off across the roof like a hockey puck. We bounced off the edge of the fountain and then the other side of Slate’s tree. We slammed our feet down, dropping our shield in the process, in an attempt to arrest the momentum. We finally stopped a bit away from the tree.

Where was the Source of Fear?

Scarecrow stood five feet way, a grin forming on its pumpkin head. It reached for us with its vines, and we drew the sword to meet them.

Mom was quicker.

She slashed the vines before they could reach us. They writhed on the ground, blue-white flames eating at them as steam rose. Mom interposed herself between us and the fetches.

“Stay behind me, girls!” Mom brandished her sword one-handed.

“Pitiful.” Scarecrow sneered. “You will all perish here.”

“ _Forzare!_ ” A wave of force slammed into the Scarecrow, pushing him further from the three of us. Harry’s staff burned with bright red runes, tired determination on his face. “It might not be a herring, but it’s good for a shrubbery.”

Right. If we hadn’t thought he was tired before… This needed to end. Fast. Just… where was the Source of Fear?

The Reaper charged. Mom stepped into its path, meeting its talons with her sword. With a snicker-snack, the blade severed the talons, green-white fire erupting from the injury. Mom easily sidestepped the follow-up from the Reaper, slashing at its forearm to injure it further.

“Mom, get down!” we called, gathering our will. We raised our right and shaped the spell. Every bit of pain, anguish, fear and anger we felt fueled our casting. The Reaper was nothing. Mom and Harry made the Reaper nothing. Mom cleared our path and we smiled.

“ _Sessakufuu!_ ” Our voice echoed out our spell, the word of power carried by the very wind we summoned. Twin columns of air exited our hands, twisting around each other, forming into a double-helix cyclone. The cutting wind, fed by the biting cold of Winter, slammed into the Reaper. The miniature tornado ripped and tore into the fetch, biting into its injuries. Green-colored ectoplasm oozed from its wounds, and it swiftly tried to stem the bleeding.

Hammerhand flickered, and we barely had time to move and put up a quick shield as a mallet-shaped limb slammed into one of our chests. Luckily, we’d made sure it was the mail-covered one, bracing for the blow with our other body. We slid back into the tree, letting out a small cry of pain. Though the mail had protected us, the blow still  _hurt_ . It hurt the fetch more, though. Green-white flames flared up on the tips of its clubs in a mail pattern.

We swapped around, drawing the sword at our belt and bringing it to bear. Stepping inside the fetch’s reach, we slashed at it with a flick of the wrist. A thin line, dripping green-white fluid, formed on the fetch’s abdomen. We steadied ourselves with a wince, pulling out of the Fetch’s reach again.

Hammerhand roared, and it sounded like a lion.

“Oh yeah, big guy?” we asked, mustering whatever bravado we could into the voice. This thing was _nothing_ , just like the Reaper. “Try us!”

The fetch turned and ran the opposite direction. Huh. Our eyes flicked to the Reaper. It retreated too. Both started for what had been the warded doorway. That just left the Scarecrow as the only fetch on the rooftop, and—

Where was the Source of Fear? It had been a part of the torturing, but it hadn’t been there when we’d gotten to the rooftop. Where did it disappear off to? Scarecrow stood right  _there_ , the other two fetches had retreated down the stairs, but the Old One… it was nowhere to be seen. Nowhere to be found… unless…

Our eyes flicked over to Harry as the moon shone its reflected light down onto a shiny patch of ice. No.

“Harry!” It was behind him. Behind _Harry_. Of course it was. It smiled toothily as it let its veil fall. God, it looked identical to how it did in the mirror. It wasn’t an illusion. Somehow it had taken that form the way Scarecrow had taken his.

“Mortal,” it purred out, and we _felt_ Harry unconsciously stiffen. He recognized the voice, that of He who Walks Behind. Of course he did. Why wouldn’t he? “I will enjoy breaking you.”

The Source of Fear flickered forward. It slashed its claws into Harry’s duster, dragging them along the leather. Perhaps it had wanted to shred the coat the way it had ours, but Harry’s held. Benefits of enchantments.

“Imagine running into you here,” Harry said. He spun around, slamming his hardwood staff into the creature’s side. Wisps of wood smoke escaped from the staff as Harry snarled out his spell. “ _Forzare_!”

The Source of Fear flew backward, force carrying it several yards before it dropped, bouncing a couple times.

The Scarecrow’s vines writhed around its hands, and its eyes changed into a somehow more sinister red. “I made you scream once, mortal girl. I will once more as your family  _watches_ .”

We adjusted our grip on the sword as the pain from what Scarecrow did flared up. We couldn’t hold this much longer, but we’d do as much as we could. “Not if we can help it.”

The vines reached out for us, but Momma stepped in, slashing through them before they could even reach us.

“I told you before, beast,” Mom said, pushing forward to slash at the fetch’s abdomen. “You are _never_ touching either one of them!”

“Bravado.” Scarecrow said, and he slammed a massive tree trunk-like arm into Mom’s side, sliding her across the ice on her back. “Pitiful woman.”

“Momma!” We ran toward her, moving across the ice. The Source of Fear flickered in front of us. It backhanded _me_ , sending me sprawling toward the Scarecrow. The sword slipped out of my hand onto the ground. Without Molly supporting me, I couldn’t even move. It hurt too much.

“Fai!” Molly called. She gathered her will, pulling both her wands out. She brought them close to each other, and she channeled the emotions she felt, anger, outrage, and fear into the spell. A blue spark formed between the wands, and then she unleashed it. “For my sister. _Fulminara!_ ”

Molly shot the lightning at something, and I heard the resultant thunder. Flesh of something sizzled with an electric sound, but it wasn’t the thing in front of me. It wasn’t the Scarecrow.

Scarecrow pulled its leg up, as if to stomp on me. Oh God. I couldn’t move, and it was going to hurt me again. It was going to take me and it was going to try and kill me. There wasn’t anything I could do about it. I couldn’t get up. I hurt too much already, and the thought of what it would do… I couldn’t make myself move. I laid frozen at its feet, my head sideways.

A pair of cowboy-booted feet ran toward me. The end of a staff planted down on the ice, and the feet lifted, slamming into the Scarecrow. Harry’d drop-kicked the fetch, landing on his back. The fetch’s foot slammed down next to me, missing me by inches. I felt Molly’s relief echoing my own.

Harry looked tired. The fight had gone on too long; the wizard usually won by now.

Vines snaked around my waist and upper body once more. As they closed around my neck, I immediately tried to scream again, instinctively writhing against them. No. I wasn’t going to let this happen again. I couldn’t. I’d been freed once before. Why did it have to happen again?

Scarecrow lifted me to my feet. In its other arm, it held Mom, and we were facing each other.

“Did you seriously think that you could win?” Scarecrow asked. “I have met many such as you before, and I will meet many more after I drain the last bit of life from you. You never had a chance.”

“Funny...” Harry said, sounding a bit out of breath. “Your… friends… left… Let them go.”

“I should think not.” Scarecrow’s mouth widened into a glowing sneer. I continued to writhe in its grip. God… please… Molly needed to be safe… I wanted to be too.

“Finish them,” the Source of Fear said as it appeared next to Harry. A few green-white marks glowed at its shoulders, abdomen and back. It turned to Scarecrow, an approximation of a grin appearing on its fanged maw. “Feed deeply on the mortals. I will handle the wizard. You take care of the woman and girl.”

“Of course,” Scarecrow said with a dark chuckle. He forced Momma and I to face one another. “Now watch, woman, as I _kill_ your daughter.”

Mom squirmed in the vines the same as I did, and the vines started tightening around me.

“I don’t think so,” Molly said, dropping her veil. She swung the sword I’d dropped through the Scarecrow’s vines, forcing them to drop us, and after moving Mom and I, she raised a veil around us before the fetch could react.

“Ha!” Harry laughed. “That’s my Grasshopper!”

“Find them!” The Source of Fear snarled. “Bring them to me!”

Harry laughed again. “Ha! Ha-ha! I get it now! You’re not really  _him_ , are you? Does he know you’re stealing his schtick?”

“He does _now_ ,” said a voice that was simultaneously different and similar to the voice used by the Source of Fear. A ripple of power passed through the roof of Arctis Tor, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to rise. A thin line appeared on the Source of Fear, running vertically through what would be the line of symmetry on its body. Twin claws pushed out the back of the creature, tearing it open from the inside. As the Source of Fear’s body fell away, a demon nearly identical stood in its place, reflected in the icy roof. An otherworldly sense of death lingered in its wake in a way that the Source of Fear hadn’t been able to replicate. “When I last saw thee, mortal man, I mentioned unfinished business, but first… How is DuMorne?”


	40. Chapter Thirty-Six

From within my sister’s veil, I stared. That thing. It tore itself out of the Source of Fear. It appeared when Harry barely  _ mentioned _ it. Here. In Arctis freaking Tor. This was the heart of Winter. This was Mab’s fortress, and a freaking  _ Outsider _ had managed to get this close without triggering any of the defenses. It shouldn’t have been possible, but I couldn’t deny the evidence in front of me.

He Who Walks Behind stood, visible plain as day under the pale light of the Arctic moon. It looked identical to how the Source of Fear had appeared, down to the very lumps in its malformed body. The difference came from presence. Where the Source of Fear had been a frightful weight upon the mind, inciting horror and terror as it made its way through the world, the Walker  _ didn’t belong _ . That thing… that demonic creature… yes, it would kill us all with a smile in what passed for its wretched hear. But... it was an affront to  _ all _ that lived.  It didn’t belong in this world, and with how tired I was… there was little I could do about it.

Mom and I stuck close to Molly as she kept the veil up around us. Mom held onto my arm with her good hand. I wasn’t even sure where her sword had ended up, but Molly still held hers. Her hand was on my shoulder, and the three of us were doing our best to blend in on the rooftop while we adjusted to the new situation.

The Walker allowed Harry to climb to his feet, standing almost perfectly still on the rooftop. It didn’t even need to breathe, but the interference its presence caused with the Nevernever made it twitch every so often. It shouldn’t have been here, and the very fabric of the reality we were in rejected its presence.

“Why are you here?” Harry asked, leaning on his staff a bit as a flaming butterfly flit around his head. His gaze flicked from the Walker to the Scarecrow. He didn’t even feel afraid at the moment, but I was about eighty percent sure that was due to tiredness. He was far too tired to be afraid. “I was in the middle of something with the giant shrubbery over there. You’re interrupting.”

“Is this true?” The Walker inclined its head toward the Scarecrow. “Is this wizard thy prey, little phage?”

“He and his companions, Walker.” The Scarecrow’s burning gaze turned toward the Walker. It gathered its vines closer to itself as if it were undecided on how to proceed. Which, given that He Who Walks Behind had destroyed the last thing that had been commanding the fetch, was a valid question. The Source of Fear had been reason enough to betray Mab and the Winter Court, but perhaps the presence of the Walker would have its instincts wanting to go for the Outsider. It didn’t belong in the Realm of Air and Darkness anyway.

I reached my hand up and squeezed Molly’s and then my mother’s. The three of us needed to stay hidden. If either of the monsters managed to spot us, we’d be right back where we started. We had to trust that Harry’d be able to handle himself, but given how tired he seemed, I wasn’t sure how long he would be able to do anything

“Interesting,” the Walker said, taking a single step forward along the roof. The ground underneath it cracked and groaned. The roof rejected it as if it wore iron, but no light emitted, just a nothingness in the cracks where the matter had been. “Thy choice seems plain then, little phage. Continue thy hunt for the companions and leave the wizard to me, or thou could choose folly, attacking me on behalf of thy queen.”

Somehow Scarecrow’s gaze burned brighter as it seemed to consider what the Walker was offering. The fetch honestly could have picked either choice. If it still served Mab, there wouldn’t even have been a decision, but the bit with the Source of Fear… Somehow it tore the obligation of the fetch away. It had to have been older than the Winter Queen, yet it went down easily to the Walker.

“Hey, if you two want to fight, don’t let me stand in your way,” Harry said, holding up a hand. “I’ll be happy to get out of your hair.”

“Perhaps I might make thy decision easier,” the Walker mused. It reached up its right arm and dragged a claw through the air. The world around us rippled, and pain shot through my sister’s spine. She jerked to the side, and let out a yelp as the veil tore away, revealing us to the world.

Immediately I spun to check on her. Good. The pain had been temporary. How had it managed to do that? I didn’t think anything could force a veil down. See through them, sure. But forcing a caster to drop it remotely? Tearing it away like wrapping paper? I didn’t remember the Walker showing that sort of ability.

“There. Thy prey is revealed, phage.” The Walker stepped closer to Harry, but he backed away.

Scarecrow’s head swiveled toward us, and its carved mouth curled up into a cruel smile. “Indeed. Enjoy your business with the wizard, Walker.” The Scarecrow’s vines extended toward us. “Mortals, shall we continue?”

“Stay behind me, girls,” Mom said as she placed her good hand on Molly’s sword.

Molly let go over the blade, letting Mom heft it, placing it between her body and the fetch’s. A solemn calm passed through our mother, a dismissal of fear and rise of pure faith. Our parents “I told you before, monster. You are  _ never _ touching these girls.”

The Scarecrow bellowed and charged across the ice. Its vines whipped toward Mom with every step it took.

Mom slashed at the first volley, severing vine tips, and she sidestepped the next. Then Scarecrow blitzed her. A gathered vine bunch jerked toward her, slamming onto her armored body. The vines steamed where they impacted, but I suspected it hurt Mom more than it did the fetch.

_ Time to move _ , I sent Molly, and she nodded. There had to be a place we could hide, somewhere we could be safe. We started moving. My eyes flicked to the Walker and Harry.

Harry slammed his staff into the Walker’s head with a resounding smack, but the Walker seemed simply amused. As harry changed the grip on his implement, carved runes lit up red and wisps of wood smoke came off it. “ _ Forzare! _ ”

The roof beneath the Walker exploded upward. Ice shard slammed into the creature as the wave of force dragged it along the roof.

Clearly, safety wasn’t that way.

Molly and I scurried toward the frozen Sidhe nobles. The power of Winter kept them here, encased in ice, which meant that Mab’s power was close to there. Mab. She’d said that I had to face consequences for bringing that book, but I wondered how she felt about the betrayal of her fetches. I wondered how she felt about an Outsider walking around Arctis Tor when she’d frozen herself to prevent something similar from happening.

If my voice hadn’t been shot, I might have wondered aloud at that, but instead I just squeezed my sister’s hand.

The Walker raked its claws across Harry’s duster,  but the enchantment he’d done held. The claws did n’t  even mar the leather . Before Harry could respond, the creature kicked him, sending him sprawling across the surface. We looked to Mom.

Vines wrapped around Mom’s feet, and she cut them off. Scarecrow balled the vines into a vegetative fist and slammed it toward Mom. A flick of her wrist was a vertical slash to cut the vines apart, but the fist remained together as it slammed into her, sending her to her knees.

I closed my eyes. If the two of them didn’t get help, we were all doomed. The Scarecrow would kill all of us or the Walker would. Something needed to give.

“Permission is necessary,” my voice said. The sound of the wind stopped at those words.

“Fai?” Molly whispered.  Maybe she’d been a bit confused since it was coming out of my mouth.  “You’re able to talk?”

I shook my head.  _ That’s not me. _

“The Walker must be driven out,” my voice said, Mab’s words coming from my mouth. “Its presence here in Arctis Tor is an insult to Winter. You, Faith Carpenter, are uniquely suited to helping address that insult.”

“And what is it she’ll have to do, Queen of Winter?” Molly asked, sharply realizing who must have been speaking.

“Grant permission,” Mab said. “And I will ensure that the Walker is struck down.”

Molly squeezed my hand, and I opened my eyes. Snowflakes that had been falling had frozen midair like a still-life painting. It was more impressive than my haste spell because I hadn’t even felt it be cast. My eyes flicked to Harry and the Walker.

He’d dropped his staff as the Walker’s claws dug into his arm. The staff hovered barely three inches from his hand, but it looked like he was midway through a fall to the ground anyway. The fiery butterfly that flit around him hovered near his left temple, where it would just be outside the corner of his eye.

Mom wasn’t handling the Scarecrow much better. The fetch had wrapped vines around her waist and legs. Her sword was buried halfway into the creature’s side, the iron causing green-white light to emit from the wound, and steaming ichor to drip down its side. Another vine seemed headed for Mom’s neck though.

“Why can’t you just act now?” Molly asked. “Why does Fai need to give permission? And what requires the permission?”

“It is dangerous to intervene in this manner without it,” Mab said. “Do I have your permission, Faith Carpenter?”

“Will this harm her?” Molly asked.

“She will live,” Mab said.

“That’s not what I asked. Will this harm her?” Molly asked, standing up to the Winter Queen. Perhaps it helped that she was talking through me rather than using her own voice. Though  _ I _ couldn’t even use my voice right now.

“She will not suffer more damage than she has already taken,” Mab said.

Molly pursed her lips and her eyes flicked to the Sidhe statue we stood near. The two of us looked, seeing Mab’s eyes on the faerie trapped in the ice. Her face was impassive through what we could see.

“Thrice I ask and done,” Molly said, squeezing her hand down on a wand. “Will. This. Harm. Her?”

“You have learned well, young apprentice,” Mab said. “The power will not harm Faith Carpenter. Granting permission will not harm Faith Carpenter.”

Molly nodded. “And if she says no?”

“I will not intervene,” Mab said simply. “I will allow things their course. Come what may.”

I locked eyes with my sister, and she nodded. The situation was untenable. Mab wouldn’t even be offering if she didn’t think there was a reason for us to say yes. If she’d been able to act upon my information sooner, she might not even have needed the help; the traitorous fetch would have been executed, and the Walker would have been shown the door. Forcefully.

I licked my lips, wetting them even in the biting cold. Though they were chapped, I still needed to do this.

“Okay,” I forced out of my mouth. “I give permission for this purpose.”

“We give permission,” Molly said, grabbing my hand. “Do it.”

I felt amusement from the statue that Mab was in, and then my veins turned to ice. A chill power poured into me, freezing me from my toes to my head. Mab. Mab’s power. Mab’s  _ self _ was channeling through me. Somehow she was using the link between the two of us created by our deal to do this. I could feel  _ her _ . God, I could feel her.

Mab was holding herself back, of course. I couldn’t channel the full thing. You can’t really channel a winter gale, a blizzard, you can only move with it. Her power far dwarfed anything I ever could see, and if I hadn’t already known her purpose, the point of Winter, I doubt I would have been able to see it through the wind. She was angry. God, she was angry. Angry at herself. Angry at me. Angry at the Outsider that had dared to lay a noodly appendage on her daughter, and she was angry at the beast who dared to darken her doorstep.

She reached out using my hand, allowing the local time to flow at regular speeds, and she simply curled my hand in a grasping motion. Ice erupted from the roof, wrapping itself around Walker and Fetch alike, freeing my mother, and pulling the Outsider from Harry’s body.

“Now, Wizard!” Mab called with my voice, the words carrying on the wind. “Unleash thy fury.”

Harry blinked, seemingly unsure of the situation. I couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t every day that Mab actually stepped in to stop things. But he got hold of himself quickly. The fiery butterfly flit closer to him, and then a smile came to his face.

Oh.  _ Oh _ . That’s right. Mab must have known right away.

Harry drew the butterfly into himself, and he lit up with the fires of Summer. The moment he touched his blasting rod, it lit up like a Christmas tree. He leveled it at the Walker and Scarecrow.

“ _ Pyrofuego! _ ” Harry yelled, and a beam of pure Summer fire incinerated both Walker and fetch. It couldn’t kill the Walker, not really, but it destroyed the body it had created, driving it out of Arctis Tor. Eldest Fetch lit up in flames, burning much like that barn scene in  _ Harvest _ . The ice holding it melted under the undying heat of Summer flames, and so did other parts of the roof. 

“Mom!” Molly called, and I forced my head to turn and look at her. As the ice melted on the roof, Mom slipped, sliding toward the edge. Molly ran after her, picking up Harry’s staff along the way. Using a bit of kinetomancy, she flickered to the opposite side of Mom, and she used the staff to stop her movement. Thank God. Mom was alright.

Mab’s power still resided with me, and with a wave of my hand, the rooftop returned to its solid state, the power of Winter icing it over immediately.

“Let the girl go, Mab,” Harry said from behind me.

“If I do not, what follows, wizard?” Mab asked in my voice.

“More.” Harry’s voice didn’t waver, and my body turned to face him. He held his blasting rod level, aiming it at me. No, past me. At the statue. Did he realize? “So I suggest you let her go.”

“Two favors you yet owe, Harry Dresden,” Mab said. “But I am not here to collect, today.”

“ Thrice and done, Mab, ” Harry said. “Let Faith go.”

“Done, Dresden,” Mab said, her power leaving me.  Did that really work on her? Or was it just a formality? She had intended on leaving me when she was done, right?  “It is done.”

The power flowed out of me as easily as it flowed in, and my link with my sister grew stronger the less the ice oppressed it. The moment the power fully left me, however, I fell to my knees.

It was over. We’d won.

So why did I still have a foreboding feeling?


	41. Chapter Thirty-Seven

We were alive, and better yet, we’d won. I almost couldn’t believe it, kneeling on the rooftop of Mab’s tower. We’d actually won. The fetches were gone, the Source of Fear had been eliminated, and the Walker had been chased off. The Fomor weren’t attacking anymore, and people had come to rescue me. They’d actually come into the dead of Winter for _me_. I wasn’t… I hadn’t considered myself important enough.

“I told you before, Fai,” Molly said as she wrapped an arm around me. Her voice was low, but I heard it clearly despite the wind. “You’re important. You’re family. You’re my twin sister, and I will _always_ come to save you.”

Another set of arms wrapped around me as well, along with wrapping around my twin. Mom pulled the two of us close. “You’re alright,” Mom said. “Faith, Molly, the two of you are alright. Thank God in Heaven, you’re okay...”

How could I have thought that they wouldn’t come? The love I felt from both of them at that moment tugged at my heartstrings. God, I just wanted to be at home right now, with them, but they’d come for me. For _me_. I wasn’t supposed to belong here, I wasn’t the one who was here in my memory, but I was the one brought. I was the one they came to rescue. My sister, my mother, my teacher, his brother and best friend… they’d all come for me. I hadn’t dared to hope for it. I hadn’t dared hope that they’d come for me here. That they’d put themselves in danger for me.

“I’m sorry,” I rasped. My voice sounded nowhere near as strong as it did when Mab had used it. She’d had to have used some sort of Winter thing to stabilize my vocal chords. Mom couldn’t hear my real voice. “You got hurt...”

“No, Faith,” Mom said as she pulled me closer. It felt so nice to be held by her. I’d missed it. I’d missed it so much. Just to be here with her was heavenly. “It isn’t your fault.”

“Listen to Mom,” Molly said, rubbing my back. I closed my eyes as I felt the tears forming at their corners. I hadn’t been expecting any of this. With how much it’d hurt to even try and think about this time frame, the little I remembered was that it was Molly here. It was Molly after she’d… I’d… helped Molly, by offering myself instead… “It’s not your fault, Fai.”

She didn’t blame me for this. I tried to keep her away from it, from doing black magic, from attracting their attention, and in the end, I succeeded. Instead it was me that they’d chosen. Though, to be fair, it did start a lot more civilly than it did for Molly. If my stay had been like hers would have been had I not been here… Mrgh… my head hurt. Still, the whole reason the fetches had acted up… that they’d been the way they were…

_Molly, the book…_ I shivered, and Momma hugged me tighter. God, if that book stayed here… it’d probably be as bad for Mab as it would be for if it got out.  _It needs to be found. We can’t leave it here, and we certainly can’t destroy it here._

Molly smiled, rubbing my back some more, and she tapped her coat.  The mental image of the book resting in her pocket appeared in my mind.  She’d found it while Mab had… done what she’d done with me to handle the Walker. Molly stuffed it into her pocket and hid it from Harry and our mother.  _Got your back, Fai. Always._

I closed my eyes for a second and breathed in the scent of my sister and mother. Underneath the blood-soaked snow, it  was familiar. It reminded me of safer times, better times.  Mom deserved more. My family deserved better.

“Sorry I ran...” I rasped again. I probably shouldn’t have that last year. I could have stayed, helped Mom some more. But my reasons… they made sense. Drew had gotten hurt. And now... “I just… my fault… hurt. Alicia's hurt...” Alicia was hurt because I couldn’t stop it.

“She’s being helped,” Mom said, quietly as she held me. Her love draped over me like a blanket, keeping me warm even here. “You’ll see when we get out of here. Everyone’s safe at St. Mary’s.”

“End it, Dresden...” A man’s voice floated across the rooftop. “Kill me. Kill me, thank God, kill me...”

“Slate,” I muttered. The fire must have melted the ice enough that he was free. 

“Who?” Mom asked, still hugging me close. I could feel her gaze go toward the tree that Harry stood near. A spike of disgust flowed through her, and then some sympathy. “That poor man.”

“The Winter Knight,” Molly said in a whisper, answering so I didn’t have to. She knew about as much as I did when it came to the current crop of Winter nobility, and she knew Slate was probably still alive since there wasn’t a new Knight. “I didn’t know that he was being kept here.” 

Molly gave me a significant look. She was right. Slate’s presence here was something I should have remembered easily, but something about my memory of this time had been an issue.

“How does… he look?” I asked. Kneeling as I was, pressed into my mother’s bosom, I couldn’t exactly get a good look at the crucified Knight. Whatever Mab was doing to him couldn’t have him in any great shape, but he was a pretty bad person. I couldn’t say he didn’t at least partially deserve it, but killing him would probably be a kindness. The suffering that carried on the biting air of Winter was simultaneously incredibly deep yet muted somehow.

“Not good,” Molly said, verifying what I felt. “He’s pretty mangled, a bit bloodied. I can’t really see him that well from this angle, but whatever was done to him was pretty bad.” She felt it too, of course, and I could see Molly paling a little from it.

“Should we...” Mom started, but I pulled away from her, shaking my head.

“Can’t,” I rasped. Slate wasn’t someone that I wanted free. Best place to have him was here, where he couldn’t do any active harm. If Mab wasn’t going to kill him until she could find her new Winter Knight, it was better to leave him rather than interrupt her punishment. It wasn’t wise to interrupt the Winter Queen’s punishment. “He’s—”

“—a pretty bad guy, Mom. We need to get Fai home. We can’t afford to bring him with us,” Molly said. She pulled herself closer to me. “He’s done some pretty bad things, and he’s on the tree for a reason. If we were to take him, we’d draw a target on our backs.”

“I suppose.” Mom pulled me closer, and I snuggled into her. The only thing I felt from her now was love, and it was intoxicating. “Faith, Molly, I never want you to feel unwelcome at home. We can take precautions for your magic.”

Still.. there was something that I felt like I was missing as I looked over the rooftop. My eyes scanned toward Harry, who stood near Slate’s tree, and to the right of him was… Oh.

The frozen fountain,  the one Mab  held both the Scarecrow and the Walker near, looked a lot less frozen. Maybe a third of the ice mound remained, but it had partially uncovered… well, it wasn’t actually a statue that had been in there in the first place. She was a Sidhe noble, tall, inhumanly lovely normally, and nearly perfect… except now, her crimson hair clumped up, clinging to her skull. Her eyes were sunken and bright. She stood in the fountain calmly, only partially free from the ice. I knew her. Harry’s godmother, the Leanansidhe. Where she stood. Oh. Oh Hell’s bells. I remembered now. 

I started to move, pushing off the ground.

“Faith? What’s wrong?” Mom asked.

“Go… we need to go.” My voice came out a bit clearer that time, and Mom and my twin helped me to my feet. That fountain. What Harry’d done… Mab had all but asked for it, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t an ulterior motive. She knew what she was doing, and she _used_ whatever that butterfly was.

“Fai, can you even walk?” Molly moved to support me. “You got beat around more than I did.”

“Need to go,” I said again, glancing to the fountain, and then toward the stairs. If I was right, we’d be joined here on the roof shortly. We needed to be out of here as quickly as possible. Which meant I needed to be ready to go. Sure, I was bone tired, bruised, sore in places I didn’t want to think about, and felt like I just wanted to curl up and hide from the world, but danger was coming. I remembered that much. “Will have to...”

I stepped toward the stairs, but my legs moved like lead.  Mom caught me before I could stumble forward, and Molly moved quickly to stabilize me. 

“Easy, Faith,” Mom said. “We don’t have to leave just yet.”

At that point, heavy thumping steps came from the staircase. They carried on the wind, making them louder than they’d otherwise be as Thomas came sprinting onto the rooftop, waving a bloodied sword. “Harry!”

“Here,” Harry said from near the Leanansidhe, and Thomas walked over to him, giving me a significant glance as he passed me by. I gave him a weak smile in return.

Molly squeezed my shoulder lightly. “That’s what you meant?”

I shook my head and held up a hand. Sure enough, a long, almost hungry horn call carried to us on the wind. “ _That_ .”

“What is it?” Mom asked as Harry stepped up onto the fountain’s edge. His stature let him easily see over the parapet walls of this roof, and he looked.

“Trouble,” I said as a second horn rang out, but in the opposite direction. Harry had unleashed Summer Fire in Arctis Tor, and worse, he’d used it on _that_. This much hadn’t changed, even if Molly hadn’t been the one to be rescued. Those flames in the dead of Winter? _Everything_ was coming to get at us. All of Winter was coming. “We need to go.”

“Charity!” Harry called. “Grasshoppers! We’re leaving!”

“Right,” Mom said. “Come Molly, let’s help your sister.” Mom and my twin took either side of me and kept me upright as we moved. Looking back wasn’t an option. The Leanansidhe wasn’t better yet, still infected by that which I had warned Mab about, and the adversary would take any opportunity to get free if it could.

We hit the stairs, and the first thing I noticed were pieces of metal embedded in the walls. Mab would have to handle those carefully, but they were how Mom managed to get through the  warded door blocking things off. The stairs seemed a lot easier going down than coming up, and when we reached the bottom, Murphy looked us over. 

“Good, you got her.” Murphy smiled at me. “It’s some ways back.”

“We’ll make it,” Molly said, adjusting her support of me. “She can move.”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding. They had to have come through some sort of portal, maybe one that was held open by the Summer Lady. Memory was a fickle thing, and I remembered that Lily had something to do with this. 

“We’ll wait for Harry and the Thomas,” Mom said, using this moment to rest. “They should be just behind us.”

Murphy nodded, leaning against the door’s frame. The fetches must have been a lot more active on the way in for them than they had been when the Fomor attacked.  Blood dripped from her own sword, and frankly, she looked about as tired as I felt. The fight upstairs or down wasn’t easy, and I just wanted to curl up next to my sister and sleep for a week.

Horns echoed out around the tower once more as Harry and Thomas hit the landing. “Out the door, now! We need to get going.”

Honestly, it didn’t take much to agree to that. We left the tower and let Harry lead the way. Mom and Molly helped me along so I could keep up, and pretty soon, we were thigh-deep in snow that went up to Harry’s knees. The cacophony of horns and howls closed in on us as we moved, drums and horns driving us to move faster with every beat. The sounds awakened something primal in us, some sort of instinctive fear that you only get when you’re truly in danger. 

Yet somehow, the snow, ice and mist that howled around us didn’t even touch us as we moved. It had to be residual effects from that butterfly Harry’d used. Summer’s power could protect those who knew it even in the dead of Winter.

A basso horn echoed across the open field, and we increased our speed more.

“Keep moving!” Thomas called, and I barely heard Harry’s grunting response. Following their lead, Mom and Molly helped me move faster. Harry seemed to be talking with Murphy, but I was too focused on the things I felt to pay attention.

Raw emotion washed over the snow-covered field. The fae chasing us were every type of angry and hungry. A raw need ran through them, rising with each horn bellow or drum beat. The first to get us, to do something about what had happened in Arctis Tor would be the first to claim their prize. Winter was angry, and it had a target.

I was so focused on what I felt around me that I almost missed Murphy’s belt give way. The chain shirt she’d been wearing had been too big for her frame, and without the belt holding it, it fell low enough to almost trip her up.

“Hold up!” Harry called, holding up his staff, and we staggered to a stop. If Mom and Molly hadn’t be supporting me, I might have fallen forward into the snow.

“We can’t stand around like this!” Thomas’s raised voice echoed over the wind.

“Ladies, we need to travel as fast as we can. Ditch the armor.” Harry said, focusing on Molly, Murphy and Mom in turn. Then he started out of his own, taking off his duster to do so. After taking his gear, he passed it to Thomas.

“Molly, you first,” Mom said, taking support of me from my sister.

“Right.” Molly removed the mail and arming jacket from her body before balling up the mail and passing it to Thomas herself. Murphy wriggled out of her own too-long mail shirt and did the same. Molly and Murphy both supported me for Mom to remove her own armor.

“Bad thing to leave here,” I muttered. Leaving iron in the Nevernever was just a bad way to piss things off—probably more than they’d been pissed off already.

Mom nodded in understanding and turned toward Harry. “Ready.”

Thomas rolled the mail into a bundle, tying it into a lump with a belt, and he slung it over his shoulder. “Me too.”

“Right,” Harry said. “We’ve been used.”

I closed my eyes. Yeah. In more ways than one. We needed to get back and out of here.

Howls and wails and horn cries grew even louder, though now all of them were to our sides and rear. Somehow we’d managed to slip the noose that the forces had formed, and if we kept moving, we could probably get away without running into them.

“Time to go, move!” Harry called, and he started slogging through the snow again, creating a reasonable path for us to follow behind him. I’m not sure how long went by as the wind seemingly got stronger, and the snow got colder. It definitely had to be more time than it seemed. The snow picked up more as I felt the rippling feeling of magical energy nearby and the scent of stale popcorn wafted nearby.

There, up on the top of the slope, maybe thirty yards away, was a rift between the Nevernever and the mortal world. Molly and I stiffened. Something was coming.

“Harry!” Molly called, just as some things, big and shaggy with white fur and long claws, emerged from the snows behind us. They ran over the snow and ice like it was perfect concrete.

“I see them! Thomas!” Harry pointed. “Murph, Charity, Molly! Get Faith out of here!”

Molly wrapped my arm around her tighter, and Mom did as well. Mom pulled the sword from her belt and thrust it at Harry’s feet before helping me push forward. Murphy stepped up behind me, keeping me moving with some light presses on my back.

It took some doing, but we managed to climb the slope,  but we managed to make it to the rift and through.

It was like stepping into a steam room. I recognized where we were, the theater room at Pell’s, standing on the stage. Behind us was the rift leading into Arctis Tor, and I could see the Summer Knight stepping through to help Harry and Thomas.

That made the white-haired woman in the room with us Lily, the Summer Lady.

Mom and Molly helped get me down the steps before my legs gave out completely. They lowered me lightly to the ground and crouched next to me. I was okay. They were okay. We were okay, and pretty soon Harry and Thomas would be okay. This was good.

I closed my eyes. I just needed to rest them. Just for a moment. We were free.

I  _still_ felt like I was forgetting something.


	42. Interlude: ??????????????

“You will find your target at this address,” my boss said over the phone and rattled off an address that I swiftly memorized. She’d called me while I was eating at a local restaurant. Chinese food wasn’t a bad lunch, and the kind they served in this part of Chicago wasn’t exactly the worst I’d eaten. Of course, with my meal interrupted, I had no choice but to listen. She usually was pretty insistent on that fact.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, looking around the restaurant. Good, nobody seemed to care about my conversation, but that didn’t mean I could be open about our discussion. “Any special considerations?”

“Accidental would be ideal,” she said, the line crackling a little. It usually did when I spoke with her, but it would fix itself. It had something to do with the phone she called from or the area. I doubted it was traceable. “But the situation surrounding him may lend itself to your benefit.”

“Deadline?” I asked. These things usually had to be completed within a set amount of time, or else I’d get another phone call. The first job that took a little long had her reaming me about it within three days. I didn’t want a repeat of that, and I suspected that she didn’t either. 

“You have eighteen hours. The target is scheduled to remain in Chicago until then,” she said. “Given the results of his recent gambit, he may end up rabbiting sooner, but you should be able to find him at that address.”

“Yes ma’am,” I said. “Anything else?”

“Nothing. Eliminate the target at your discretion,” she said, and then the line cut off. I pocketed my cell and gave another look around the restaurant. Nobody paying attention. None of it mattered to any of the other patrons, and it wasn’t like they could hear her on the other end. I had a target, an address, and a timeline. I needed to go.

I flagged down the waitress and paid my bill. Cash. I left a thirty percent tip. The service industry does need to make a living, after all.

Thunder crashed as I stepped outside, and rain cascaded down from the sky onto my umbrella as I walked calmly to my car. The rain darkened my car’s paint to nearly match the asphalt of the parking lot, and it did much to cleanse it.  The car gets so dirty just driving around the city. If I was lucky enough, the rain would continue through the day. It would make it much easier to handle the target. 

I unlocked the driver-side door and got in, closing my umbrella in the process. My car’s leather interior remained mostly unsullied as I placed my umbrella in the passenger-side and the keys in the ignition.  After I aligned myself in the parking lot, I shifted into first and started toward the target’s location. I left the radio turned off as I went over what I knew about the target and his likely defenses. For one, the target was a vampire. Well, the target was a White Court vampire, to be precise.

This meant that he had enhanced strength, speed, good vision in the dark, and he  fed on emotion .  As a Raith, he actually fed on lust, but from what my boss said, he had started on fear too. Of course,  s he wouldn’t have come to me with an easy target. My lips pulled up into a feral grin. The rain wouldn’t help too much unless the target knew magic on top of his normal vampire things, but it would prevent any other surprises from popping out of the woodwork.  Spellcasting was hard enough in the rain, from what I understood, but enchanted items would make things a bit painful.

The parking lot in front of the hotel was about half-full, even with the police presence that appeared outside. Lovely. That would complicate things, but it did explain why my boss preferred this to look more like an accident. Police made things sticky, and even when dealing with supernatural targets like a vampire, some of them actually did leave corpses. Self-cleaning creatures tended to be more of the Nevernever than of the real world.  Ectoplasm cleaned up so much easier than blood.

After parking, I got out of my car and walked around to my trunk. Popping it open, I pulled out the false bottom and surveyed my tools. For dealing with a White Court vampire, particularly one that was wel l-fed, one had to be careful. I was mortal, more or less, and as such, I lacked a lot of the vampire’s natural strengths. I had to work out to get my muscles, train to be able to handle them, and weapons would be my friend. 

I pulled a machete from the trunk and hung it on the inside of my jacket, carefully keeping an eye out for the cops. Their presence meant that I couldn’t quite be as loud about this as I wanted.  Plus, my boss wanted it quiet. Getting the vampire to have an accident wouldn’t be easy,  but it’d be worth it just to remove the Raith-shaped thorn from my boss’s side. He’d become more trouble than he was worth, apparently. Not my business. 

Despite the police presence, or perhaps because of it, the lobby of the hotel was bustling. People never fail to look at a spectacle, and whatever had happened here certainly qualified as that. Police tape blocked off a section of the convention rooms, and despite the acrid smell of industrial cleaner, a faint hint of the coppery smell of human blood remained. Something dangerous had happened here last night, and the police were all over it.

Not my problem. I had a job to do.

Pushing past the rubberneckers, I made my way to the front desk.  A girl, maybe about nineteen, sat at the desk. She was fair-skinned and had dark hair  done up in a pony tail. She was pretty cute, with pert lips, a button nose, and a pair of deep brown eyes. She wore the hotel’s uniform, and two name tags sat on the vest.  The first said “Hello, my name is… THE LOVE INTEREST.” The second identified her as Cindy.  I started formulating a plan to get the rest of the information I needed.

“Good afternoon, beautiful,” I said with a smile. While the smile was supposed to be charmingly off-putting, there was always the chance that she wasn’t attracted to men or it just wouldn’t work. Confidence was key, since I wasn’t wearing the uniform.

“Can I help you?” she asked, barely paying attention to me. She probably had enough people calling her beautiful, especially with that name tag above her work one. Even money said that the name tag had something to do with the event that was taped off. 

Again. Not my business. I had a job to do.

“Yes, you can help me find someone named Cindy,” I said, looking down to my hands a bit. “I was told by…” my eyes flicked behind her. There. Employee directory. Manager on duty: Leslie Underwood. Wonderful. “Leslie that she was needed to help a guest on the fourth floor.”

“I’m Cindy! But I can’t head up to the fourth floor. Someone has to man the desk, and that’s my job right now,” she said, a little cross. I swear, she practically pouted in front of me.

“Tell you what,” I said. “I’m not in the mood to go up and get yelled at by Leslie right now. How about I watch the desk for you, and you go and see what he wants up there.”

“But I—”

“Shouldn’t keep Leslie waiting. I agree. Just head on up and I’ll make sure nothing happens here while he has you,” I said earnestly. See, most people tended to not remember where they’d seen a face or heard a name. The only thing Cindy was focusing on was Leslie, not me. She didn’t even think to check if I worked here, because clearly I had the confidence to say that I was. 

“If anything happens...” Cindy said.

“I’ll be here. Don’t worry.” I smiled, and she went off from behind the desk, likely heading toward the elevators. Good. 

After she’d stepped out of sight, I went behind the counter and stepped up to the computer. Luckily, Cindy hadn’t locked it, and it was a simple matter of typing in the target’s name to pull up his room number. My boss had indicated that he was here under a pseudonym, so… there we go. Darby Crane, room 510. Reaching into the nearby drawer, I made myself a keycard to his room and to the vacant room nearby.

“Hey, don’t I know you?” A man asked as he passed the counter.

“Don’t think so,” I muttered as I glanced up from the computer. The man was athletically lean, wearing a tee-shirt that had a similar logo to the banners in the blocked off area. He must have been convention staff, but the way his hands were shaking indicated some sort of drug use. Twitchy, shirt drenched with sweat, heavy breathing, and his pupils were dilated. Yeah. He was high on something, and I was going to go out on a limb and say meth. 

“Yeah, yeah, you’re probably right. You just look like this guy I know,” the junkie said. “He’s an asshole. But he’s dating the sister of my girlfriend, so I have to play nice.”

“Do you need something?” I asked as I palmed the key cards with my left hand. Though I really didn’t care about his girl troubles, I still felt the urge to punch him. Especially with the way the junkie kept just standing there, twitching.

“Yeah. I can’t find my room key. Make me another, my man?” God, this junkie was annoying, but I wouldn’t jeopardize the mission to take care of him. I reached into the key card area and looked to the computer.

“Which room’s yours?”

“Room five oh eight.” Oh, interesting. His room was right near the target’s, and judging from how high he was, he had to have the drugs close. Maybe he had his stash on him, or maybe it was in the room. Of course, meth wasn’t exactly a clean kill, and a vamp on drugs had the potential to be far more of a pain in the ass than a sober vampire. Still, if the junkie had some other stuff, it’d make things easier to deal with. If not, I’d have to improvise with another plan. Tossing him off the roof like a suicide jump would be a good second plan.

I pulled up the appropriate information and made two copies of the key, passing one to the junkie. “Here you go.”

“Thanks, my man.” Right. Couldn’t beat him here, couldn’t kill him. Too messy.

“No problem.” I smiled at the junkie, and he wandered off. Now, I needed to make sure that the card machine didn’t have record of the cards that were just made. They tended to only cache the past few so I made some faux-check-ins in the computer and had them check out after I made the cards.

As I was cleaning my tracks, an other interruption approached the desk. He was slim, dark-haired, and pale. The hairs on the back of my arm rose with his presence, indicating a bit of power, and judging from his gray eyes, he had to be a vampire of the white court. The look on his face any other day would be pure Hollywood,  but something lingered behind the mask. What had him scared?  What had he seen?

“Can I help you, sir?” It was too public here to take him out. So I needed to pretend that I was the one who belonged here.

“No, of course not,” said the vampire. He looked around once more, and upon not seeing who he was looking for, he turned back to me. “You haven’t seen anyone very tall around, almost seven feet tall?”

“No,” I said honestly. Nobody fitting that description was around the hotel that I’d seen. There couldn’t be that many tall people like that in the city. Maybe Raith was referring to Chicago’s personal wizard? Dresden did seem to make a lot of enemies. It was possible that my target either wanted to avoid him or hurt him.

Huh. Imagine doing that guy a favor.

“Any more attacks here since last night?”

“Not to my knowledge, sir.”

“Good. If anyone from the convention asks, I’m staying in my room the rest of the day,” Raith said.

“Of course, Mister Crane.” With him staying in his room, that made my job all the easier. I offered the vampire a smile, and he returned it before heading toward the elevator.

Watching him with a critical eye, I noted that his gait seemed off; his skin took on a granite-like sheen, and he looked to be in a bit of pain. Well, that would make some of my job easier. If the Hunger was focused on repairing damage to him rather than being available for him to draw on, things would be far simpler. He pushed the elevator call button, and I checked the cards in my pocket idly. I just needed to give him  some time to get back into his room, and then I’d be able to handle things my way.

The elevator door closed behind the vampire, and I stepped out from behind the desk. Cindy would be here soon enough, and  she’d probably have words for me since I wasn’t staff, after all. The elevator was easily visible from the desk area; I’d be the only one waiting when I made it over. 

O r so I thought, anyway. I hadn’t seen him come up, but a man in a gray tweed suit stepped up alongside me. The suit was rumpled, like he’d worn it a few days now. He was about average height for his ethnicity, and his eyes were kind of a watery blue. He was overweight and balding, maybe in his late forties, and that was just what kind things I had to say about him. The scowl on his face that came when he looked at me instantly identified his profession. The man was a cop.

“Can I help you, sir?” Never hurt to be polite.

“Maybe. I’ve seen you around the past couple days,” said the obvious cop. “You wouldn’t have happened to see a pair of blonde twin girls running around, would you? They’re identical.”

“Can’t say that I have,” I said. Blondes are a bit of a sticking point for me. I definitely would have noticed if the twins had been here. Thinking on it, Dresden had a pair of tag-a-longs that were blonde, didn’t he? Yeah, they were pretty good looking. Pity that they weren’t here. “Why are you looking for them?”

“Not really your business,” he said. Then he looked me over again. “What about an older blonde woman, a cop, you seen her?”

“I haven’t seen much,” I said. “Just what’s going on with the crime scene over there.”

The cop actually growled. I got the feeling that he was a little high strung.  Of course, given how occupied the lobby seemed to be, he might have had good reason. The cops were out in force at that convention. Something had to have happened. Maybe someone even died.

“She’s definitely getting reported for this,” muttered the cop, and then his radio went off. Something about evidence in some room or another. I couldn’t quite make it out, but it wasn’t meant for me. “Never mind. I’ll be talking to you later.”

He stalked off, and I shook my head. Whoever they were looking for, it wasn’t me  _yet_ , and I needed to make sure that the vampire’s death was clearly an accident in the eyes of the law. My boss would subtly pay a weregild to the White Court for it, but only if somehow she were implicated.  The goal was to prevent that implication.

The elevator doors opened, and Cindy stepped out, glaring at me a little. “Aren’t you supposed to be behind the desk?”

“Guest called me to check on something. I put up the sign,” I said. 

Cindy glowered. I wasn’t too concerned as to whether she believed me or not, and since I was avoiding her gaze a bit, she probably wouldn’t remember me all too well. “Leslie wasn’t up there. I looked everywhere. You’re sure he was asking for me?”

“Positive. Though he might be talking with the cops about what happened last night.”

“Oh, god,” Cindy said, her face paling. “I-I think, I’ll get back to the desk. Do my job.”

“You do that,” I said, stepping aside so she could move past me. As she headed off, I stepped into the elevator and pushed the appropriate floor.

The doors closed behind me, and luckily, nobody else got in. Now, how to do this? While I could just defenestrate the vampire, from the fifth floor, he’d probably survive the fall. So making it look like a suicide jump or an accidental drunken stumble was right out. Though a different sort of stumble might work just as well. White Court vampires feed upon emotions, and in exchange their Hunger increases their physical capabilities.

Raith would be dangerous, even injured. So coming at him straight-on would probably be fatal, even with the enhancements my boss had given me. I fingered the key card belonging to the next room over. The junkie  _might_ have a stash that would work. He was on meth, and God knows what else he was planning on trying. I could kill two birds with one syringe, I suppose. It depended on how much drugs the junkie had stashed in there.

The elevator doors opened, and I stepped out, heading toward  room 508. It wasn’t too far from the elevator, taking maybe twenty seconds from door to door. Slipping the key card into its slot, I carefully opened the door. I needed to be quiet in case the occupant was there. Starting a fight next to the target’s room seemed like a bad idea.  Knocking him out quickly was likely the best idea.

Room 508 more or less had the same setup as every standard hotel room. It really wasn’t anything fancy despite being next to the suite that I knew the target had. Immediately to the left was the bathroom and sink area while directly ahead was a  bureau with a flat-screen TV, maybe a 44”, and across from that sat a queen sized bed, and on the bed sat the junkie, laying back against the headboard. A rubber hose sat draped around his arm, recently loosened, and a syringe stuck out of a vein. Judging from the relaxed look on his face, he was into more than meth.

Sitting in his hand was a little glass vial, and I moved further into the room to take a look.  It was maybe half-full of some sort of clear liquid, and judging from the junkie’s reaction, I’d say heroin. I needed to see if he had any more. Heroin would be an excellent way to deal with the vampire. He was human enough that an overdose would kill him.

Lying in bed next to the junkie was a  sport water bottle that had the word ‘tea’ written on it in permanent marker. It  sat about three quarters the way full, but that didn’t really matter. Its contents weren’t what I needed. 

I stepped closer to the junkie and lightly slapped his face with my left hand. “Hey, wake up.”

“Huh?” He blinked blearily at me, and I shook him. “Whuzzat?”

“Got any more of that?” I asked, nodding to the vial. His eyes gained a little bit of focus, as he looked at me and laughed.

“You...” he laughed. “Yeah, yeah… it’s in the bag somewhere… jus’ drink the tea afterward… Makes it all go ‘way so no addiction...”

“Right,” I said, shaking my head as I scanned the room for his bag. Ah. There, on the chair across from the computer desk. It was a martial artist’s gym bag. The junkie definitely had the build, but I was surprised anyway. You’d think a martial artist would have the discipline. I placed the bag on the desk and unzipped it. 

I let out a low whistle as I looked through the bag. “You don’t do anything by half-measures, do you?”

The bag had to have at least a couple thousand dollars worth of drugs in it, ranging from heroin to crack, to meth and powdered cocaine. I took a few of the vials of the cocaine and pulled his spare syringes. This would work.  I took the coke too, and smiled. This would help.

After filling five of the syringes to the brim, I slipped them up my right sleeve into a bracer I had on my arm. Boss wanted her to not be implicated. I’d make sure of that.  I pulled my mask upward before stepping outside the hotel room. I reached for the second key card I had as I approached room 510.

I rapped lightly on the door.

“Who is it?” Raith’s voice echoed from within the room. He sounded distracted, maybe a bit off his game. Perfect.

“Housekeeping...” I lightened the tone of my voice some. It didn’t make me sound anything like what was probably his preferred prey, but it definitely didn’t make me sound like myself. “I come in?”

“No! It’s not a good time!”

“I’ll come in now?” Okay, that show was a bad influence. I slipped the card into the slot and opened the door.

“I said no!” Raith was half-dressed, walking to the door. I’m not attracted to my own gender, and even I thought he looked unfairly good.

“Oh, too bad,” I said, my voice dropping to its normal register as I pulled open the bag of coke and tossed it at his face. “Housekeeping’s going to have a lot of issues with that.”

“Who the hell are you?” Raith, his face now coated in white powder. It should have started kicking in… any second now.

“Cowl sends his regards,” I said simply, stepping further in. He wasn’t exactly my boss, but he headed the organization my boss worked for, at least as I understood it. She directed me here, so it was my choice.

“But I’ve done what he asked!” Raith said, nerves clearly fraying as his eyes took on a silver sheen. “There’s no reason he should have—”

Perhaps it was impolite to interrupt his ranting, but a punch to the solar plexus helped with my own nerves. Well, a punch to  _his_ solar plexus. The vampire swung at me, and I grabbed his arm with my right, pulling a syringe out with my left. 

“You’re human, you’re weaker than me...” Oh, that skin was turning marble now. I slammed my forehead into his chin and jabbed the syringe into his arm, depressing the plunger completely. “I won’t let you… I won’t let...”

The vampire kicked out at me, slamming into my lower ribs. I grunted with the pain, but I kept my hold on his arm with my right. Just a little more. He probably needed the second syringe before he started feeling it, so I pulled it out. Second syringe, ready to go.

“You’re not going to….” Raith’s eyes were completely silver now, and I slammed my own knee into his own and stomped his foot. I tugged at his arm, and I slammed the second syringe in. I wasn’t entirely sure I’d hit the vein either time, but I injected, depressing the plunger completely. “No! People will talk! My family will be after you!”

“Only if they know it’s me,” I said as the vampire started to relax. I noted the lines of milky-pink blood on the shirt he wore. The vampire had been attacked earlier that day. By what, I wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter. “This isn’t a bad way to go, by the way.”

“Not, dying...” I lowered Raith onto the bed and I reached for the third syringe.

“No, not yet, but you will be,” I said as I actually looked for a vein this time. I injected directly into the vein, and the vampire’s head lolled back. “Too much of a liability, they said.”

“Just… was… feeding...” He laid back in the bed, and I smiled beneath my mask. I removed syringe number three and placed syringe number four in the same vein, injecting completely. I repeated the process with five.

“Well, now you won’t be,” I said, dropping the cocaine next to him on the bed. “But, on the bright side, you won’t be alone.”

Taking the syringe with me, I walked out of the room and into the junkie’s. The man had fallen unconscious. Good. I picked him up off the bed, and I brought him into Raith’s room, laying him next to the vampire. The moment he hit the bed, he turned and looked at me.

“You… what?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said and I used the rest of his vial in the syringe I had on hand. “Just take this.”

“Need to remember tea in morning,” he said as he took the syringe and injected himself. I made sure he depressed the syringe completely, and as he had, he and the vampire both closed their eyes, the highs clearly hitting them.

“Tea, right.” I shook my head as I stepped out of the room, making sure to let the door close behind me. I left 508 slightly open so that the cops could implicate the junkie when they found the bodies the following morning. I’d injected Raith with enough heroin to kill three men, and the junkie had taken enough to kill himself. Still, just to be sure, I went back into 508 and grabbed the rest of the junkie’s methadone stash. 

When I went back into 510, the junkie’s breathing had slowed significantly, and so had Raith’s. The vampire’s skin was perfectly white. The Hunger was attempting to fight off the drug effects, and I could actually feel the draw, the attraction that the vampire had. The Hunger wasn’t going to discern one way or the other, and I needed to get closer.  I steeled myself, crushing the methadone bag up with my right hand. I was probably going to have only one shot at this, and otherwise, I’d have to actually fight it off. 

I opened the bag, and I held it lightly with my left hand. I stepped closer to the vampire, keeping the bag open. Yes, injecting it on top of the heroin would probably finish him off, but I didn’t have time to make it possible to shoot up. Instead, the moment I got within arm’s reach, I made sure to  push the drugs toward his face, forcing the bag over his mouth and nose. God, his Hunger made me want him. I wanted his body for my own, but I couldn’t let that deter me. He needed to die. 

His breathing slowed further, even as the meth got into his system, and the moment enough of it did, I dropped the bag and backed away. I kept backing, and the Hunger weakened, faltering. Raith’s body started twitching rapidly, convulsing really, as if he were having a seizure, and spittle started pooling in his mouth. Yes… God, I needed to get out of here.

I stepped out the door and let it close behind me. There was no doubt in my mind that both would die now. They’d be found in the morning by actual housekeeping. The absurd overdose would be the cause of death for them both, but it would implicate the junkie in Raith’s death. The junkie’s would be purely accidental.

I  lowered my mask when I got to the elevator and pulled out my cell phone. I called the burner number my boss set up for this job.

“Ma’am,” I said when she answered and verified it was her. “It’s done.”

The mission was complete. It was time to go.


	43. Chapter Thirty-Eight

While I’m sure whatever conversation Harry had with the Summer Lady was scintillating, I was much more concerned with resting my eyes. I only blearily opened them to get loaded into Mom’s van where I curled up next to my sister with Mom keeping a hand on my back before I faded again.  While their warmth remained a shield against the lingering cold, my dreams were plagued by visions of what almost happened. Of what did happen.  The Scarecrow could have done so much more, shattered my soul and broken me completely. What it did do would be nightmare fuel for years to come. Those vines… I would never look at that movie the same again.

If Mom, Harry, and Molly hadn’t shown up, I’d be worse than dead, and it would have been all my fault. My fault for not remembering, for not being able to stop it.  The fetches shouldn’t have shown up this time, at least not for the same reasons . Molly hadn’t messed with our friends at all.  Maybe it had something to do with the Source of Fear, given that it had gotten the Scarecrow to betray Mab the way it did, or maybe Mab  sent them anyway, intending on using them to get me to her.  There was no way to know one way or another, but the issue with Mab definitely wasn’t over.

Maeve was infected the way the Leanansidhe was, and at some point, the infection would have to be eliminated. I hoped that Mab would be able to get her daughter back. No mother deserved the pain of outliving their child, not even the Queen of Air and Darkness,  and then there was the issue with Molly. I couldn’t let that happen, but I couldn’t indicate that it might by asking for Mab to not let that happen. I needed to find another way. I just couldn’t remember exactly how it had happened or when.

I remembered Molly being taken to Arctis Tor in the original timeline, the one I didn’t exist in. She’d suffered under the tender mercies of the fetches longer than I had, and she’d turned out mostly okay in the end. Maybe I would too. She didn’t have what I have. The version I remembered didn’t have a twin sister, and I very much did. Molly wouldn’t let me be anything other than myself. I guess that meant that I was worth it, even if sometimes I didn’t feel that way. 

My body rocked forward  into partial awareness as Harry pulled the van into park. Yes, Harry had to be the one driving since  Mom and Molly were so close. Mom would never let Thomas drive the van, and Murphy was too nearby at the moment.

“Faith, sweetie,” Mom said, lightly rubbing my shoulders. She knew I wasn’t fully asleep anymore. She always could tell; she was my mother, after all. “We need you to get up. We’re at the church.”

“Mama,” I let out, snuggling into her rub which morphed into a full hug. Oh, I’d missed this. Mom’s hugs were the best.

“Fai, we do need to get inside,” Molly said. “There’ll be some food, real food in there. Come on.”

I nodded, opening my eyes, and with a little help, I got out of the van.  Molly moved under my shoulder to support me while Mom got my other side.  Molly shuffled a bit as Thomas passed us, and the vampire slipped his hands into his jacket before going to talk with his brother.

“Need any help?” Murphy asked. She looked like she still hurt quite a bit. I hoped some of this guilt went away sooner than later.

“We’ve got her, thank you Lieutenant,” Mom said. “Let’s get inside.”

My mother, Molly, and I made our way inside. Harry followed, dragging his brother alongside him.  Murphy stood just in front of Harry, keeping an eye to see if I needed extra help. Honestly, with her stomach injury, she should have been worrying about herself. 

Father Forthill greeted us  inside with a smile. “Ah, there you are. Come on in.” He looked closer at me. “Faith,  everyone was quite worried about you.”

“I’m here,” I said softly.

“Well, let’s get all of you inside,” Forthill said. “Your siblings are sleeping, but I’m sure you want to see them.”

“Yeah, she does,” Molly said for me, and then she and Mom continued helping me inside. Vaguely I heard a small brotherly argument going on behind us, but it didn’t matter as we went down the hall of the rectory to where Forthill had placed our family.

Everyone was sound asleep as we stepped inside, but the floorboards of the room must have been old as they creaked the moment we stepped in. Either that, or it was whatever causes loud noises when you’re trying to be quiet. Either way, Harry, our brother Harry, stirred from his resting point at Danny’s feet.

“Momma! FaithMolly!” Harry shrieked in delight and ran up to Mom, hugging her. She returned the gesture, letting Molly support me. “You were gone for so long!”

Well, if we’d been hoping to let everyone sleep, Harry’s noise more or less prevented that. Amanda and Alicia woke up around the same time, and their stirring woke Hope. Matttie and Danny probably woke up about the same time as Harry’s first shriek, but they still were a little bleary-eyed.

The moment their eyes cleared, however, our little siblings wrapped us in hugs.

“Faith, they managed to get you back,” Danny said as he pulled me into a hug. I winced slightly, but I returned it. “Oh, Lord, are you okay?”

“I’ll get there,” I said softly, leaning into his hug. “I’ll get there.”

“My turn!” Amanda said, nudging past her big brother before wrapping her arms around me. I dropped carefully to my knees so that we could hug at close to eye level, though I avoided meeting her eyes for more than a second. “I’m so glad you’re back, Faith. When those monsters came...”

“I’m fine, squirt, or I will be.”

“Should have seen her,” Molly said. “She didn’t give up, and she fought the monsters too.”

“Oh?” Amanda asked, and Danny looked interested too.

“Let’s let your sisters get settled down before you get any stories,” Mom said, lightly pushing through the jawas as she made it back to the wall. She leaned against it and lowered herself to the ground, and Molly and I were given chairs nearby. 

Across the room, I noted Harry and Murphy sitting down and watching us, but my attention was drawn closer to a dark-haired girl in the room. Alicia seemed torn between sitting down and hugging. I looked to her with a small smile and opened my arms, and she nodded, coming to wrap me in a hug.

“I’m sorry,” she and I said at the same time. She pulled back, blinking owlishly.

“ _I’m_ sorry,” I repeated. “If Molly and I had been better at ferreting things out, we’d have noticed Parker sooner. Nothing you did while under his control was your fault.”

“But he was going to make me—”

I wrapped her back up in the hug. “He didn’t. Molly and I wouldn’t let him. Mom wouldn’t let him, and if Harry was there, he would have stopped him point blank.”

“But you were—”

“Taken, I know,” I said with a small shiver. Molly reached over from where she sat and lightly placed a hand on my shoulder. Another hand joined hers, then another, and another. Soon all my siblings had hands on me, and Mom did too. The love and caring I felt from them warmed my heart. I love my family so very much. “That wasn’t your fault, Ali. They were going to do what they could to take me.”

“I’m just glad you’re safe...” Alicia leaned in closer and I ran my hand down her dark hair. I didn’t dare open my Sight to look at her, to see what damage Parker had done, but given the guilt she felt, it probably was a little ugly. 

“I am too,” I said, ruffling her hair and looking her in the eye for a second. “But I’m more glad that you’re safe.” I pulled my gaze away before I got drawn into a soulgaze with my little sister. Hope wrapped an arm around my leg, and I reached down to rub her head as the familiar presence of Father Forthill approached the door, bearing gifts.

The priest passed out sandwiches to each of us, and frankly, I didn’t care what kind mine was. It felt like I hadn’t had anything to eat in days. I scooted myself to the floor, leaning against the chair, and Molly did the same with hers. Our siblings sat nearby, each of us within touching distance of one another, reassuring ourselves just by being there. And we ate. The sandwiches filled the hole in my stomach the best they could, and each taste was all the better for it. Say what you want about the sandwich, but in a pinch, it was one of the best foods available.

“So, can you tell us where you were?” Mattie asked, placing an arm on me. He’d finished his sandwich completely. “You all were gone for a while.”

I swallowed and wiped crumbs from the edge of my mouth. I debated whether to tell him, or rather, I debated whether to tell all of them as I noted all the  j awas looking to me. Molly was offering support, and Mom wasn’t saying no. I guessed it really was up to me on how I handled this.  With what had happened… 

I closed my eyes and let out a sigh. They knew about magic. They knew we had magic. They didn’t know about the Venatori thing and they never would. While I didn’t want to remember the worst parts of what had happened, it still had happened. The fetches did far more to me than I’d ever be comfortable remembering, but the jawas didn’t need to know that. I’d tell them what they could know, what I was most happy about.

“I was taken to the Nevernever,” I said, lowering my voice some. “To the deepest parts of Faerie, into the lair of the Queen of Air and Darkness. _Arctis Tor_.”

“There was snow everywhere,” Molly said. “A blizzard in the darkness, and the only light came from a butterfly gifted to Harry to light our way.”

“Hey, you didn’t come until later,” I said. “But they did come, fighting movie monsters and other things to come up to the top of the tower in that fortress to save me.”

“Movie monsters?” Harry asked. “Like Sulley and Mike Wazowski?”

My little brother was lucky he was sitting on the other side of Molly. I would have wrapped him into a tight hug then and there for being so adorable.

“More like ones from the scary movies Molly and I watch, Harry,” I said softly.

“FaithMolly, you shouldn’t be watching scary movies,” Harry said. “They’re scary and scary gives nightmares.” He nodded with all the authority a four-year-old could have.

“Your eldest sisters are too brave for that sort of thing,” Molly said, ruffling his dark hair. “They weren’t really movie monsters. They were evil faeries. Mister Dresden led the way with his magic, but Mom was close behind with her hammer.”

“Everyone came to find me,” I said softly. “And when they did, they fought tooth and nail to keep me. Momma managed to fight off some huge monsters with Mr. Dresden and Molly helping her. She used one of the swords she made to help Daddy fight with. It was pretty awesome to see. They were fighting up there and coming up there for _me_.”

“Well, duh,” Amanda said. “You’re family! Momma and Molly couldn’t just let you stay gone!”

“Yeah, family!” Hope said. “Ohana. It means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”

Apparently Father Forthill had broken out the Disney movies when it looked like Mom and Molly were going to be a while. Of course, the sentiment was echoed throughout the rest of my siblings. I had no doubt that if they’d had the ability and power, they’d have been there alongside Mom and Molly. They’d have come to save me just as I would come to save any of them.  Family was important, and they were mine.

We ended up snuggling closer to Mom, piling up  on each other and her as if we were pillows for each other. Something about the combination between what we’d eaten and the storytelling… and really the day itself. We needed to be close to our mother and each other. We closed our eyes, drifting a bit, the warmth of our family’s bodies warming our own as much as their love warmed our hearts.  It felt right to be with them like this. Our family was the best, and we’d have the best dreams with them around.

Still, we needed to be able to keep them safe. The way Alicia had been taken and how quickly was indirectly our fault. We needed to make sure the book was destroyed. While we’d given it to Thomas outside the church, we needed to call Lara and alert her to who had it. The sooner, the better.

We slowly pushed away from our siblings.

“So, where do you think you’re going?” Harry Dresden asked from across the room. Damn. He was awake.


	44. Chapter Thirty-Nine

“Where do you think you’re going?” Harry’d asked. We’d been hoping that he’d been completely asleep so we could make our call and get back here without issue, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen. Not if we wanted to keep the Venatori and our involvement with it secret from Harry and our family, and that was one secret that we refused to let get out. If they found out, they’d be drawn into the Oblivion War, or they’d be killed by the rest of the Venatori for their knowledge. So, that was unacceptable.

No, clearly the only response was to engage Harry, without getting into the nastier things that we had to deal with. While his help would be invaluable when dealing with this sort of thing, Harry wouldn’t like it. So, we had to deal with other things, things more closely related to what was going on with us.

“You’re awake?” we whispered, phrasing it more like a question even though it was quite obvious as we continued to extricate ourselves from our family, careful to not move them too much. Luckily, this time they seemed to be a bit deeper in sleep. It must have been falling asleep near our mother. Lord knew, we always slept easier near her too and near each other.

“Too tired to sleep,” Harry said, looking at us. “Again, I need to ask, where do you think you’re going?”

“Bathroom,” I whispered quietly. It was true enough that my words wouldn’t give me away. “Then…”

“Then?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. Sometimes I wondered if he practiced that in a mirror. I looked down, and Molly grabbed onto my hand.

She turned her gaze onto Harry. “Girl stuff. We should probably get in fast.”

Harry narrowed his eyes. I wasn’t entirely sure whether he believed Molly or not, but I was supportive of my sister’s line. It’s not like he’d actually push it further. Harry wasn’t that stupid.

“Right,” Harry said, standing up. “Let me help you get there. We can talk after you’re done.”

“I can… I can walk,” I said, rising to my feet. Molly stood next to me, keeping me stable. After this bit of rest, I felt quite a bit better. I still _hurt_ , but the pain had abated some. It was enough that walking seemed like a real possibility after all. “To the bathroom, at least.”

“You’ll forgive me if I just want to make sure,” Harry said, grabbing my arm. The familiar tingle of his power brushing against mine echoed between us as he and Molly helped me get to the nearby bathroom. Sure, it wasn’t the telephone, but it turned out, I actually did need to use it. Arctis Tor had surprisingly sparse facilities for a fortress. Maybe fae absorbed all of their food. It was all ectoplasm in the end anyway.

Molly and I used separate toilets, of course, and after we were done, we met up at the sinks to wash our hands. She nudged me. _Harry’s going to want to talk about the last few days._

_It’ll go better for us if we go along with it._ I shook my head and went for the soap.  _We can inform Lara tomorrow, after Grandma comes and gets the jawas._

_Remembered more?_ Molly asked, raising a metaphorical eyebrow since doing that is actually a bit hard. 

_Sort of. Old memories, but I remember that Grandma will probably take the jawas,_ I sent. Honestly, our grandmother would probably want to take us too, but she’d understand why Mom would want us nearby.

_Well, lucky them._ Molly shrugged and went to dry off her hands. She turned toward the door. “Ready?”

“Time to face the music,” I said softly, using paper towels to dry my own hands. Harry wasn’t going to let us off with a simple rhetorical question this time, I was certain. He’d only done that at his apartment because we’d left the meter running on the cab. He hadn’t pushed, and we hadn’t bothered to open ourselves up. I hadn’t bothered to open myself up. At the least, Molly and I hadn’t broken the Laws of Magic. Knowing what we know, I doubt we’d be willing to do so ever.

My sister and I pushed ourselves out of the bathroom, and the moment I stepped through the threshold, pain flared up in my leg, and I stumbled. Harry rushed forward and caught me before I could fall far, and Molly slid herself under my arm, reaching around my back to support me.

“Easy there, Grasshopper,” Harry said. “Do you think you need medical attention?”

“Not right now,” I said, leaning into Molly for support. “It just snuck up on me. I think I should be able to walk.”

“Good,” Harry said simply, though his feelings remained sympathetic. “I saw an office door open a bit further down this way, the two of you can sit down in there, and we’ll talk. The time has come, it seems.”

“Okay,” Molly said. “What will we be talking about?”

“Many things,” Harry said, and he led the way.

“Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax?” I asked, a small smile on my face.

“Cabbages and kings, kid.” Harry pushed open a wooden door, leading us into a conference room. An elliptical wooden table sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by black rolling chairs. A projector hung overhead and a screen was extended on the far wall. Religious iconography decorated the walls: paintings of the Virgin Mary, a crucifix, a picture of the Pope, and a picture of the Sacred Heart. The three of us took seats at the edge of the table, scooting as far from the projector as we could. Magic does what it does, and none of us wanted to be responsible for that equipment breaking.

Harry let the two of us get comfortable, and we sat there for a bit in silence. Molly and I didn’t want to go first, given that Harry was the one who requested the conversation, but it seemed like Harry wasn’t entirely sure what to say. Honestly, I wasn’t either. It wasn’t like what I remembered. Molly and I had been Harry’s apprentices up until the point we left town. He’d taught us a good chunk of what we knew about magic.

Not everything though. Maybe that was something that we’d need to discuss here.

Harry cleared his throat. “So. Scry-proof tattoos, huh?”

“It seemed prudent when we got them,” Molly said. “There was this whole big thing, and they ended up being helpful.”

“They do more than just protect from locator spells,” I said softly. “I’m still not fully sure on all of the functions though.”

“You trust the one who gave them to you?” Harry asked, and I raised my hand flat and wiggled it from side to side.

“Sort of,” I said. “She helped us out when we needed it, but she had her own agenda.”

Harry grimaced, and the worry he felt for us spiked. He couldn’t help but be overprotective. We _had_ been his apprentices. We were one of his good friends’ eldest children. It was an admirable trait within him, but at this point, he needed to understand that we were able to take care of ourselves a bit. “Who was this woman?”

“She gave us a name, Vana.” Molly shrugged. “She answered to it, but it was probably an alias of some sort. Still, she did help us out, and she taught us some while we were in Toronto.”

Harry blinked. “Okay, how the heck did you end up in _Toronto_?”

“I’m not even sure,” I said. “We couldn’t exactly stay in Chicago, not after what had happened with Guase. I needed to get away… from everything. Our fight over Marcone, Momma wanting us to tell her exactly what we were getting into so she could try and _protect_ us… everything. I even ran, trying to leave Molly behind.”

“Moron,” Molly said, wrapping an arm around me. “How would you have coped if I wasn’t there? How would you have expected _me_ to cope without you here?”

“I just...” I sighed, shaking my head.

“You weren’t exactly thinking clearly,” Harry said. “You’d been through something horrible, and we got in a fight over your decisions. Not that they were really good ones, but I could have handled it better. We both could have.”

Molly squeezed my arm lightly. “If the two of you had listened to me and calmed down… Maybe things could have worked out.”

“I was just… Guase was… she was a horrible enemy, and a necromancer,” I said. “She used _zombie ghouls,_ Harry, _zombie ghouls,_ and she was a Kemmlerite besides. And… _you weren’t there._ ”

“Kid, that’s not the point,” Harry said, raising his hand. “I didn’t really want to bring up the argument.”

“Harry, you weren’t there. You were the one we relied on, the one who knew all the answers. And then this thing happened while you were out of town, and we were in no way able to handle it on our own. Daddy was gone on a trip, and Momma...” I choked out a small sob. “God, Harry… my best friend could have died then. It would have been my fault too.”

“Faith,” Harry said, lowering his voice. “Sometimes bad things happen, and there’s nothing we can do to stop them. The only thing we can do is our best to prevent them, and from what I understand, you managed to stop something major from going down while I was away.”

“Yeah,” I said, looking at a spot on the table. “But Drew lost his arm. I’d thought he lost his life.”

“But he didn’t, and you stopped _something_ from happening with a Kemmlerite. And let me tell you, after Halloween, I can honestly say that you made the best call available to you. I’m sorry.”

I swallowed, closing my eyes. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have left the way I did.”

Harry nodded.

“That’s not why you wanted to talk to us though,” Molly said. “You wanted something more.”

“Yeah,” Harry said. “See, a few days ago, the Gatekeeper gave a message to me about Black Magic being used here in Chicago. Something that mattered. Given what happened with Alicia, I’m inclined to believe that the one the fetches killed was behind it.”

“Something like that,” I said softly. “He controlled Alicia.”

“The only thing that I can’t quite figure out is _why_.” Harry crossed his arms. “Sure, he was nice and crazy. He was breaking the Fourth Law on your sister and probably the Third Law as well. Still, the main question was _why you_? Of all the people at the convention, he happened to pick the two of you. Plus, there’s the fact that you were taken to Arctis Tor, Faith.”

“Y-yeah.” I shuddered. It suddenly seemed far colder in here than it had been.

“Now, fetches are drawn to places of fear, to things that can cause fear. What that kid was doing was… terrible, but Alicia will recover from it. She’s already started.” Harry looked to me and then my sister. “I know the two of you are too smart to break the Laws of Magic yourselves, but did you do anything that could be considered borderline?”

_We should mention Nelson and Rosie_ , I sent to Molly. 

_It was your plan to begin with_ , Molly sent back. She nodded to Harry. “The last time I spoke to Bob, he helped me with a potion. The potion gets rid of all the ill effects of Red Court Venom, addictive properties and  all. I made it for Fai when she got a big dose of the venom.”

“Wait, when did that happen?”

“Just the night before we fought Guase,” I said. “Outside Mac’s.” Accorded Neutral Ground only applied when you were on the grounds itself. Outside, everyone was free game. “Drew and I had gotten the number for the Wardens, and then the vampire attacked us. If Drew hadn’t had that shotgun, I probably would have been dead.”

“As it was, she got a pretty severe dose of the venom,” Molly said. “I asked Bob for help with it, and he gave the potion.”

“Okay,” Harry said, frowning. He didn’t like what he was hearing, but he was holding it in. “What does that have to do with being borderline?”

“We made the potion for some friends of ours,” I said. “Ones who were suffering from addictions to more mundane things. Rosie’s pregnant, and Nelson… well, he’s Molly’s boyfriend.”

“It didn’t work exactly how it did with the venom,” Molly said. “They needed doses of it to moderate their tendencies, but it worked. And it was better than the other option. Better than breaking the Laws.”

Harry let out a low whistle. “Hell’s bells. Yeah, a potion that you’re not forcing them to take isn’t breaking the Laws, but the way that one works… it’s definitely on the border. That’s something that will probably be a mark against you, but it’s not actual Black Magic.”

I bit my lip. “The sculpture I did. Parker was controlling Sandy for God knows how long. Maybe something about the sculpture I did for the con attracted the fetches. The first attack didn’t happen until after I did some repairs on it at the convention center.”

“Fai, that wasn’t your fault,” Molly said. “You were just trying to help out a friend who’d been helping us.”

“Maybe,” Harry said. “I’ll have to get a look at it myself, assuming I can even get in the hotel, but I don’t think that it’s your fault entirely, Faith.”

“If _she_ sent them,” I whispered. “It is. She wanted to talk to me. Anyone they killed, they hurt… because of me.”

Harry frowned, and his feelings went through a spectrum of worry, concern, anger, and then they finally settled on something akin to resignation. “You have no control over what the Queen of Winter chooses to do. She might be limited in her choices, but those limits aren’t ones that I understand fully. I wouldn’t expect you to either.” Harry reached across the table and placed his hand on my own. “But, given what happened with her in Arctis Tor… I’m a bit worried about you, Faith. Both of you, really. Why were you familiar with the Walker? I’m told it’s an Outsider. You didn’t...”

“Break the Seventh Law?” Molly asked. “No, no she didn’t. It’s… complicated, Harry. Very complicated.”

“I believe that,” Harry said. “I really do, but I need to prove it. With both of you. We probably should have done this a while ago, but if I’m going to go to bat for you with the Council, I need to know I’m doing it right.”

“You want a soulgaze with each of us,” I said.

“Exactly.” Harry crossed his arms. “Now, I know that it’s invasive, and I’ve avoided it too. But I need to be able to bring things before the Council. If it isn’t me, it’d have to be another Warden. The two of you were my apprentices, and I trust you. But with what happened, the Council needs to be notified, and the two of you need to let them know what happened to Alicia and how it was stopped.”

“Yeah,” Molly and I said. “We can see that.”

“So, I’m asking you to extend some trust to me.” Harry squeezed my hand lightly. “I’ll go to bat for you, and you won’t get blamed in the end if I can help it. I just need to make sure.”

Molly and I looked to each other, pursing our lips. Molly gave a slight nod, and I returned it. It was time that this happened anyway.

“I’ll go first,” Molly said, turning toward Harry. The two of them locked eyes, and then their bodies stiffened as the soulgaze took hold. I remembered what my own soulgaze with my sister had been like, and I remembered what Harry would have seen if events hadn’t changed. Molly was different than she would have been. She was my sister, and quite often she was more mature than me. I loved her so much.

The gaze ended about as quick as it had began, and Molly leaned forward, gasping for breath. “I never knew… Fai… did you know? Would you know?”

“Easy, Grasshopper,” Harry said, rubbing his forehead. “I know this isn’t your first rodeo, but let the world come to a stop first.”

Molly nodded. “What you saw...”

“Let me get your sister, and we’ll talk then,” Harry said, rubbing his head again. He muttered to himself before turning to me. “Ready, Faith?”

I sighed, and nodded. “As I’ll ever be.”

I met the eyes of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, and I embraced eternity.


	45. Chapter Forty

There’s a reason that Molly and I don’t meet the eyes of people for long, though we know how it probably looks. They say that the eyes are windows to the soul. For a Wizard or a sufficiently practiced practitioner, that becomes a lot more literal. When they lock eyes with another person, the wizard or practitioner gets to see what makes that person tick. They see the person as they truly are. As for why it’s not done more often, well, the window’s visible from both sides. When the wizard looks into a person’s soul, the person looks back into theirs. Additionally, what is seen can not be unseen, nor can it be forgotten. It’s much like the Sight in that matter.

It doesn’t instantly make a person trustworthy, but it lets you get a measure for who the person is. I’d avoided it with Harry Dresden for almost a decade, and now, that was changing.

The world fell away as I stared into Harry’s eyes, and the wind picked up, blowing icy precipitation into my face. The smell of falling snow hit me as I stared up at an ice-bound crag with a long, treacherous trail leading to the top. A small light flickered at the top of the precipice, and my gaze passed down the mountainous path. Obstacles of all sorts littered the perilous way up the mountain. Ranging from simple traps and minor wyldfae to ghouls, vampires to zombies and their necromancers, and there were even things that shouldn’t have existed at all. Blurred things, tentacled things, things that just looking upon them could reduce the strongest of minds to a gibbering wreck. I even think I saw a dragon. Harry would have to face much in his future, some of which I knew for certain.

A bit further ahead of me, I saw Harry, all six-foot nine inches of him, staring at the light ahead, ignoring the trail he stood upon. In one hand, he held his staff, and in the other, he held a set of straps. The straps led back to a sled, on which he carried… corpses. A second look showed that the sled was actually _tied_ to his hand, and the corpses, the dead that littered the sled sat up occasionally, talking to Harry. I even recognized a couple of them from the news. People that Harry felt responsible for. People who had died on Harry. He dragged them along as he pulled forward, heading toward the light.  He burdened himself with guilt, with decisions to take on the world.

There were easier paths, easier ways to go, but it was uncertain whether they led to the light or not. They forked off the main path, marked with varying sigils. Power, I realized. They represented the temptation of power.  Lasciel’s coin, a gangster’s gun, fangs,  and I even saw a snowflake sigil. Denarian, Marcone, White or Red Court, Winter, the Darkhallow. All of these things Harry turned down in favor of continuing onward.  He made things so hard for himself. It wasn’t fair.

“Why can’t you just rest a bit?” A voice asked. 

“Have to keep going,” Harry replied. “Can’t ever stop.”

“But just for a bit. Get some succor, some rest. You deserve it.”

“I can’t,” Harry said, not even bothering to look my way. He continued staring at the top of the crag, through that treacherous path. He already was so scarred up. His clothes were torn nearly to shreds. I had no clue as to how he could go on, but he did, making step by step, passing inch by hard-won inch. “Someone has to get there. Someone has to stop it from going out.”

“Does it have to be you?” The same voice asked.

“If not me, then who?” Harry continued his trek, and I frowned, stepping back. I couldn’t walk alongside him, nor could I follow his precise path. If he veered from it at any point other than the forks, he’d fall, or his burdens would drag him down. He wouldn’t let that happen, not on purpose, but it could easily happen one way or another if the burdens became too great. If he’d just cut loose some of the burdens rather than taking more on, he’d be so much better off.

“He takes so much upon himself,” said a female voice. “He makes his life harder than he should.”

I turned toward the voice’s source. A dark-haired woman stood near me.  Her dark eyes watched Harry as he climbed before she turned back to me, letting me see her sharp features. She stood about my height in the flats she wore, and she wore a pair of hip-hugigng jeans and a jacket. “He’s much like his brother in that respect. I’m pretty sure that he fears what should happen if he  f alls.”

I looked back to my struggling mentor as he pushed forward, further up the  precarious path. “He won’t  f all. Harry’s too stubborn to even consider that as a possibility. He’s seen too much of what can happen.”

“He still worries about it,” she said. “Far more than he should. He worries far too much.”

I looked to the woman, trying to get a better view of her. Those eyes and that nose. I’d seen similar features on both Harry and Thomas. While I hadn’t seen any pictures of Margaret LeFay, I’d seen and heard her description. I knew that she’d hidden a part of herself within both her sons’ souls, such that when they finally did soulgaze with each other, it would playback a sort of message to confirm their identities.

She was able to talk with the two of them and reassure them that they needed one another. Knowing her, she was probably also whatever linked the two men to Lord Raith, making him weak enough that the real power behind the throne was Lara. Margaret LeFay had done things with magic that I couldn’t even dream of, and from what I remembered of her, she skirted the line of the Laws quite merrily and quite often. While she never quite crossed the line, at least as far as the Wardens were concerned, she practically dared them to punish her. She didn’t agree with all of the Laws of Magic. She also somehow managed to get a being like the Leanansidhe to be Harry’s godmother, made some sort of unknown deal. That was amazing dedication.

There was just one significant problem.

There was no way this was Margaret LeFay standing next to me in her son’s soulgaze. The woman was skilled enough to make a targeted message within her son’s soul and I definitely wasn’t the  v ampiric target. I had a funny feeling that I knew who this actually was, so I swallowed before bracing myself.

“Even if he worried less about Falling, you wouldn’t get him to pick up the coin,” I said. I’d been standing outside when Harry’d picked up the coin, and from the sulfur I smelled on that rooftop in Arctis Tor, he’d relied on the abilities of the coin a bit more than he’d expected. He had yet to actually pick up the coin though. Instead, he had… the person in front of me. At least I hoped so. If Harry had yet another person in his head, something would be severely messed up.

Luckily for me, the woman laughed. “You are definitely  _his_ apprentice, Faith Carpenter.” Her body began to shift and my senses tingled. She morphed, much like malleable clay, into a smaller woman with the same raven-dark hair. Her chest was a little more pronounced, especially now in the toga she wore that nearly touched the floor. Her lips were fuller, and they quirked into an all-too-dangerous smile. Worse, the sheer presence she put out threatened to crush me where I stood. “Such an interesting girl. I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like for you to pick up my coin rather than Harry.”

Lasciel, the Webweaver, the Temptress, or at least a reasonable fascimile running on Harry’s brainmeats stood before me, and Lord help me, as much as I knew about her, I couldn’t help but wonder how much of it was accurate. I mean, I didn’t think she appeared before anyone  in the original timeline other than Harry.

“If I had,” I said, biting my lip a little. This wasn’t going to be easy. “I’d ideally have given the coin to my father to be taken far, far away from me. I’m not so confident that I would have been able to resist you for three and a half years the way Harry has.”

“I’d be able to teach you how to call the coin. No matter where your father would have taken it, you would have had access to it.” Lasciel’s shadow’s presence intensified, and I could feel my body shaking. “And Harry will pick up the coin in good time. Perhaps when he does so, I will advise him on the best Fallen for you and your sister..”

“You mean the Fallen within your coin, of course,” I said, trying to push off the weight of the presence. “Not _you_.”

“There is no difference,” said Lasciel’s shadow. “I will reintegrate with my completed self, and the knowledge I have will still be known. I will always know what I know.”

Her presence increased, and I shuddered. Th e ambient power put out by this  woman, a mere shade of a Fallen Angel… God. How much of that was her? How much was Harry? How much stronger was the actual Fallen in the coin?

“What...” I shook my head and swallowed the bile rising to my throat. “Why are you doing this? Talking to me?”

“You know more than you let on, Faith Carpenter,” the shadow said, a smile playing on her angelic lips. She stepped forward and lightly placed a hand on my shoulder. “You knew about Sheila before Harry even met her. How might you know that? I wonder. What else might you know?”

I couldn’t close my eyes or she’d be free to do what she wanted. If I kept watch on her, kept looking toward her until the soulgaze ended, she couldn’t do anything to me. She wouldn’t do anything to Harry, not when she needed him, and… stars and stones…  _this_ was  _Lash_ ?

“I know that you wouldn’t willingly work with Nicky-Boy or his Fallen unless there was a specific goal of yours that fell in line with his,” I said, trying to push her off, but my feet felt rooted to the spot. She could break my mind wide open if I let her, but I couldn’t let her. Hell’s bells, what if she already had?

“Anduriel’s reach is far, but even he does not possess perfect vision of the future but simple Foresight,” Lasciel said, reaching up and cupping my cheek. “That, usually is reserved to His chosen, which makes you and your sister ever so special.” Her hand felt icy on my face, and a chilled feeling passed into my body. “You know the future, or at least _a_ future, and you never told my host. You poor, sweet, na ïve child. You would have done well with the coin. We could have brought the future you want to fruition without anyone important being harmed.”

“I’d just have to give myself up,” I murmured, shivering. “N-no. No thank you. You can’t make me convince Harry to pick the coin up either. He won’t. I won’t let him. He won’t let himself. Why even bother talking to me?”

Lasciel’s presence faded somewhat, shifting from overbearing to simply lingering. Her smile shifted from predatory to something almost motherly. “You are important to him, child. My host’s desires are my desires, and my host’s precious people are my own. I can teach you and your sister much. You would be able to protect yourselves, and what happened at Arctis Tor would never happen to you again, young Venator.”

Wait. What? How? She knew about… What? “How did you know?”

“It does not take much skill to recognize an Old One if you know what to look for,” Lasciel said. “Oh, don’t fret. He does not yet know.”

“Are you going to tell him?” She couldn’t. I wouldn’t let Harry get involved in the Oblivion War if I could avoid it. That was one change I refused to allow to happen. 

“What need have I to involve myself or my host in such a petty war?” Lasciel’s shade smiled. “Of course, were my host to accidentally come across such a thing, you know how he is. I would have to ensure that he is well-prepared for such a thing and involve myself as much as he would allow. Perhaps such a thing would allow me to do more for him. After all, I wish nothing more than to keep him happy and safe.”

I swallowed, looking past the shadow. Harry still dragged his burdens, pulling them up the dangerous path. There was an easier path nearby, marked with the hourglass sigil of Lasciel. How much easier would life be for him if he had it? How much harder? He had much ahead of him to face, things I both knew about and didn’t know. His dark side would be terrifying with such power. My gaze shifted to the path below him, heading down the mountain. Oh. Wow.

I’d initially thought that I was looking at Harry on his way up from the base of the mountain, but I had only been looking up, looking forward.  I hadn’t thought to look backward, to see what he’d overcome. The path behind Harry was a smoking ruin. Each and every obstacle had been burned, blown to bits, and razed to its barest parts. Sure, Harry wasn’t in the greatest shape coming out of it, but his enemies had been destroyed, crushed, and driven before him. He’d heard the lamentations of their women and possibly some of their men. 

Hell’s bells, Harry Black s tone Copperfield Dresden was one of the most dangerous men I knew. Did he really need the coin to become moreso?

“Happy… safe...” I shook my head. I knew what he could become. Seven words. His life could change with seven words, and I knew seven of my own. Seven for Harry, seven for her. “Stop lying to yourself. _You_ are different.”

The tingling feeling  of her presence grew and I looked back toward Lasciel’s shadow. She lowered her hand to my chest, and she pushed.

I stumbled backward into my chair with a gasp.

My heart pounded in my skull, the lingering effects of the soulgaze itself making the world spin as I tried to figure out which way was which. Molly’s hand helped, and she squeezed mine as I turned back to Harry.

“… I thought I did know,” I said quietly. “But I hadn’t realized.” Ignoring the comments from Lasciel’s shadow, Harry’s soul showed a lot. That narrow path he felt he walked… He wasn’t a bad person, but he felt he could be. Hell’s bells, he feared he _was_ one already. For all the power he had, for all the strength of will, he felt like he could still go bad easily, though I knew he would never. That much was obvious.

“Easy, Faith,” Harry said, looking me over. “I know the two of you have soulgazed before, but it’s a bit much sometimes, even for me.”

I closed my eyes and tried to get my breathing under control.

“What did you see?” Molly asked. “When you looked?”

“Some things that maybe I should have been able to see without a soulgaze,” Harry said. “The two of you are connected on a level that I didn’t even know was possible, but it might have something to do with being twins.”

“And?” I asked.

“Well, you’re basically good people, and as I knew before, the two of you have a lot of potential.” Harry smiled. “Given the right tutelage, the two of you could end up on the Senior Council one day, and that’s saying something. Though I doubt either one of you would want to be the Merlin.”

I shook my head, but before I could say anything in response, Harry raised a hand to stall me.

“The two of you do have some danger ahead of you, if I’m interpreting things correct,” Harry said. “A lot will depend on your choices going forward. The two of you haven’t broken the Laws, not directly anyway, and that much is obvious from the gaze.”

“But there’s more,” I said.

“There’s always more,” Harry said. “I think the two of you should testify before the Council about what happened with your sister, and you should include information about the potion. Get it out there and come clean. You didn’t abuse your magic on anyone, but the potions could come close. The Council should see it that way.”

“Should?” Molly asked and a bit of guilt rose up within Harry. “Not will?”

“You didn’t actually do any black magic, but there are some hawks there that might spin it that way. They were already looking for black magic in the area, and while this Parker kid’s already dead, the only testimony we have about him is from you.”

“But aren’t you a Warden?” I asked. “Can’t you say that you know for certain it was him without us going?”

“I didn’t see him until he was already dead, and they’ll know of him at least,” Harry said. “If you keep up with the potions, they’ll find out sooner or later, and a Warden that’s a lot less nice than me will talk to you about them. If they don’t like what they hear, they’ll probably decide to execute you themselves.”

“Like Morgan,” I said, softly. I could have brought up others. Harry had no shortage of people who didn’t like him there.

“Maybe,” Harry said with a flare of worry mixed with guilt. “And we’re going to have to talk later about that tidbit too, Faith. I understand why you kept it hidden, and I had a very good explanation on paradox from Bob recently. Still, it would have been nice to know that you have foreknowledge of certain events.”

“It’d be nice if it was consistent,” I said with a grumble. “So, if we go to the Council and testify, then what?”

“To verify your integrity, I claim you as my apprentices formally,” Harry said. “I’ll be responsible for training you and any use of magic from the two of you.”

“Weren’t you already?” Molly asked.

“Not like this,” Harry said. “Before I was a bit more lenient than perhaps I should have been. If we’re doing this, you need to agree to accept my leadership. If I tell you two to do something, you need to do it. No more questions, no delays. I need to be able to trust the two of you with my teachings, and if we go to the Council together, you’ll have to accept that.”

I glanced to my sister, and she nodded, squeezing my hand. This had been something I was trying to avoid but...

“Yeah, Harry,” Molly said. “We might as well do it. For Alicia's sake.”

“We’re your apprentices already,” I said, swallowing down my worries. The Merlin might not have liked Harry, but he was just one member of the Senior Council. “Making it official is fine, and… I trust you.”

“We’ll have to talk with your mother beforehand if this is definitely what you want. Michael’s still out of town, right?” We nodded. “We’ll talk with him when he gets back. I promise you this. Regardless of what the Council says, I won’t let them hurt the two of you. I’d die first.” Harry looked at us with determination that he attempted to hide his guilt behind. He didn’t like the situation we were being put in, but it was clear he saw no way out of it. Neither did we. Of course, if they tried to railroad us the way they would have done Molly had we actually broken the laws, we’d push back. Hard. We didn’t do anything wrong, and we’d force Harry’s enemies on the Council to acknowledge that.

Somehow, anyway. We breathed out a sigh

We nodded, and we breathed out a small sigh. “Like we said, Harry. Let’s go to the Council.”

Hopefully this wouldn’t bite us in the ass.


	46. Chapter Forty-One

Harry hadn’t needed to say much to convince us that staying at the church was a good idea. Our apartment would be there when we needed it, and so would Drew. Molly and I laid next to each other on the same cot, my arm draping over her side and hers around my neck.. After how the past day and a half had been, we needed each other’s presence more than ever. My sister and I were tired, beaten and battered. Any sleep we could get would be good.

After Harry laid down in an empty cot, the uneven sound of nails on tile announced the travel of Mouse across the room. He was worried about all of us, but he needed to check on Harry first and give him comfort. The dog knew that if we were all here, we’d be alright, and whatever had happened to him, I knew he’d shake it off eventually. Ah. Right. Darby Crane had practically run Mouse over. As if there wasn’t reason enough to dislike the director already.

Harry’s breathing slowed shortly before Mouse settled into a position next to him, and we felt him drift off to sleep. There were _some_ benefits to being empathic. We’d been fooled before because our family had distracted us. Though to be honest, I don’t even think we thought to check.

Lightly, ever so lightly, we slid off our cot. We weren’t going to leave, but we needed to use the phone. The nearest one was in the office across the hall. We slipped around our mother and the jawas, and we crossed the hall. Of course, slipping makes it sound a lot easier than it was; there were a few times that we had to stop due to the jawas moving or pain shooting up a leg. It didn’t matter. We still had a phone call to make.

The office across the hall was simple in design. It had a desk, some bookshelves containing various religious texts, some nice chairs, a table lamp and, of course, a rotary phone. This was Father Forthill’s office, used for meeting with the supernaturally inclined. He probably did have a computer somewhere, but he didn’t keep it in here.

_You make the call, Fai_ . Molly gestured to me after we separated.  _I’ll listen in._

I nodded and sat in the swivel-office chair at  Father Forthill’s desk. Resisting the urge to give it a good spin, I picked up the phone and started dialing. If I recalled correctly, rotary phones were where the expression for dialing a telephone came from.  I just needed to dial seven digits for the local number, well, eight really; a nine was needed to get the outside line.

I finished dialing the number , and it started ringing. “Heaven help me, if that phone’s turned off...”

“It won’t be, Fai,” Molly whispered. “Just wait a few seconds.”

I nodded, and after two more rings, the line clicked  as the phone was answered.

“Speak,” Lara said. The order was curt, but she didn’t sound tired at all.

“It’s Faith,” I said, perhaps unnecessarily.

“Who else would be calling from a church?” Make that definitely unnecessarily. “Of course, I was wondering if you were still alive, given what happened.”

“Yeah,” I said. “It was a regular wonderland.”

“Being that the major events of the convention ended with the attack warded off by Harry Dresden, I suspect you’re calling about a successful mission?” 

“Something like that. Thomas is destroying the book,” I said.

“Well, my little brother does know his duty.” Lara laughed. “I suggest that the two of you remain with your family for now. There is no further need for you at the convention center, and neither of you are of use to me in jail.”

I glanced to Molly, and she rolled her eyes. “We do have common sense.”

“So you say.” The line cut out then; she’d hung up on me.

I pulled the receiver away from my head and stared at the phone for a few seconds. “She’s hot, but I  _really_ don’t like her.”

“Justine’s prettier,” Molly said. “She doesn’t need to cheat with the vampire thing.”

“Yeah,” I said with a small smile, and I picked up the phone again.

“Ah, calling him now,” Molly said. “I’m not sure he’ll have his phone on.”

“Why didn’t you call him?” I asked. “To come help with the rescue operation, I mean.”

“I didn’t want you to feel guilty over something that wasn’t your fault,” Molly said softly. Worry shone through her voice and our link. “Besides, I don’t think Harry would have let him come.”

“He let you and Momma,” I said, giving only a token protest. Molly had done the right thing. Besides, Drew needed to be able to keep an eye on the convention since we weren’t there. If he had gotten hurt, again, while trying to rescue me… She was right. I’d have blamed myself like I did for my mother’s injury.

“He doesn’t know how much Drew knows,” Molly said. “And Harry _can’t_ know that part.”

“Yeah,” I said, and I turned to the phone. Drew had a cellphone that he normally kept turned off when around us, but we’d called it before. It didn’t take long to dial the number, or for it to start ringing.

It rang once… twice… three times… and on the fourth ring, he answered. “Hello?”

“Drew,” I said, a smile finding its way onto my face. “It’s Faith. How are you?”

“I’m okay, Fai. Where have you been? I went by your house yesterday, and it looked like a battleground.” Drew’s voice reflected his weariness and concern. The empathy didn’t exactly work over the phone, but I knew him.

“Faerie,” I said. “Our house got attacked by the movie monsters, and it turned out they were faeries. Fetches, specifically.”

“Wait, you went to Faerie or they were faeries?” Drew asked.

“Both, really,” I said. “They attacked after the guy Lara was worrying about showed up. They ended up killing him, and they took me.”

“Why am I just hearing about this now?” Drew asked. “I could have come and helped you.”

“It was dangerous, Drew,” I said, looking to Molly. She clearly wasn’t feeling guilty about it at all. “And… it wasn’t my call.”

“Fai,” Drew said softly. “I would have wanted to help you if I was given the choice. I’d have helped you.”

I sighed and closed my eyes. Drew laying in my arms, bleeding out flashed behind them. The image of his ghost, of fighting his ghost, stuck with me for too long. “I know you would have, but everyone made it back okay. And someone needed to keep an eye on the convention in case something got worse.”

“Well, it did a bit after you left,” he said. “Just after sundown another movie monster attacked. It was a full-sized Xenomorph. Think your teacher managed to blindside it, but not before it got some more people. If they were after you, why did they kill?”

“Fear. They fed on it, and the best way to get the fear was to appear as something frightening and act on it,” I said. “Did they stop after that?”

“Yeah. There weren’t any more attacks on the convention,” Drew said. “Of course, they also canceled the last day of it entirely and only ran a half day yesterday for us to start getting things packed. We were done by lunch.”

Something seemed off about his words. I wasn’t entirely sure what, but something in his tone. “Drew, anything else? Did anything happen at all we should know about?”

“Well… is Molly there?” Drew asked. “She should hear this if she’s there.”

Molly came closer to me, placing her hand on the phone, and we said, “Yeah, we can hear you, Drew. Go ahead.”

“Oh. Well, guess that works,” he said, and we heard him mutter something. “Okay, so, I know you were trying to help him out with that potion. I remember how both Nelson and Rosie were before it, but I think that Nelson’s abusing your trust.”

“How so?” we asked. A bit of anger briefly passed through us. We knew something was up with him, but we were sure that since we never found him cheating on us, he was going to be a good person. What had he been doing?

“He’s still using drugs, and then he’s using the potion afterward to clear up any addiction remnants,” Drew said. “Actually, I think he’s using _more_ drugs than before. He was on meth when I ran into him.”

“… what?” Our voice came out low as we tried to rack our brains about this. Nelson couldn’t have been that stupid, could he? “You’re sure about this?”

“He told me himself,” Drew said. “Then he tried to hit me, and I had to defend myself a little. No clue what you see in him, Molly.”

“We’re starting to wonder,” we said with a grumble. He shouldn’t have tried to hit Drew, and he definitely shouldn’t have been using the potion like that. It was so he could _quit_ drugs, not so he could just go through them and—I wrapped my sister into a hug. She might not have wanted to stay with him much longer before, but now? Oh no. They weren’t staying together at all. “She’ll probably end it with him soon.”

“Fai?”

“It’s late, Drew. I’ll give you a call when we’re back at our apartment. We’ve got some business in the next couple days that’s more on the wizard side.”

“Anything I can help with?”

“Not this time,” I said. “We’re meeting with the Council. Harry’s officially claiming us as his apprentices.”

“Ah. Tell me about it afterward?”

“Definitely.” I looked my sister in the eye, and she leaned her forehead against my own. “Good night, Drew.”

“Good night, the both of you.” The phone clicked as Drew hung up, and Molly took the receiver from my hand and deposited it into its cradle.

_I can’t believe him. Why would he do that?_ Molly’s anger stoked the flames of my own. Nelson hadn’t really been someone I liked much from the beginning, but he’d been someone _she_ had liked. I put up with him because of that, and Molly knew it.

_Because he’s arrogant, Molly. He wasn’t right for you._ I rubbed the back of her head and let out a small yawn.  _You need someone better._

_We both do._ Molly sighed and she leaned up from me. It wasn’t over, but she and I  were tired. “We should get some sleep. Come on, I’ll help you to the cot.”

The two of us made our way carefully back into the other room, and we climbed onto our cot. Mouse barely looked up from where he rested, but he  relaxed completely when he saw where we’d placed ourselves down. Good dog.

We settled in, curling against each other, and closed our eyes. Now that we weren’t actively trying to stay awake, we swiftly drifted off to sleep.

We dreamed of mountains, faeries, and fallen angels. We dreamed of children and pyramids, of vampires and ghouls, and of things that drifted out of our memory as Harry shook us awake.  We breathed in a sharp breath and looked around. Our mother sat nearby, a hand on each of our heads. 

She removed  them and looked to Harry.  She seemed to be blinking sleep out of her eyes. Maybe she’d fallen asleep after our siblings had left. “Yes? Is everyone all right?” 

The only thing we felt from her at the moment was love. Okay, maybe there was a tinge of concern, but as we slowly climbed to a sitting position, she moved her hands to support us. The jawas were missing, but Momma mentioned something about Grandma coming to take them home. Daddy was still out of town, of course, and then Harry looked to us and then to our mother.

“We need to talk about some things,” Harry said. “They’re fairly important, and you’ll want to know about them. Please.”

“What sorts of things?” Momma asked.

“Things that are worth waking up for. Maybe you could get up and get some water on your face. I’ll hunt down some coffee.” Harry looked pensive. He must have done quite a bit of thinking. Dreaming maybe.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds, Momma,” I said softly. “Tea for me, Harry. Please.”

“Very well,” Mom said, running a hand down my hair. She turned her gaze onto Harry. “Make sure hers has two sugars and a single cream. The same for Molly’s coffee. I’ll take mine black.”

“Right.” Our mentor stood and walked out of the room.

Once he was there, Momma turned to us. “What sorts of things?”

“Important ones,” Molly said, her voice as soft as my own. “There’s a lot that happened, more than we even realized.”

“We probably should have,” I muttered. “I probably should have.”

“Faith,” Momma and Molly said simultaneously. “Stop that.”

“You’re _my_ daughter, Faith Jessica Samantha Carpenter,” Momma said, wrapping her arms around me. “It’s not your fault if something out of your control happens. You are not causing people or monsters to act the way they do.”

I snuggled into my mother’s arms  for a bit, and Harry came back, holding four cups, some bagels and some fruit  on a tray . He passed them out, making sure to hand me the tea. 

W e ate our breakfast, and Harry explained to our mother what we’d gone over the previous night.

“Wait, aren’t they already your apprentices?” Mom asked when Harry’d finished. She looked over at us, and shook her head.

“Yes, absolutely,” Harry said. “And no, not yet. Officially, I haven’t presented them as my apprentices before the Council. Normally this happens at quarterly meetings that I tended to skip, but since they’re witnesses of a warlock that happened _here_ , I think the Council will be ready for them.”

“The man who mind controlled my Alicia...”

“He’s dead, Momma,” I said softly. “Killed by the Scarecrow before I got taken.”

“There’s no proof he was the one to control Sandy or Alicia, at least not without us,” Molly said.

“Nothing that lasted the sunrise, anyway.” Harry looked to our mother. “Charity, they need to go and let the Council know what happened. They should also talk about what happened with their friends. Keeping it secret won’t win them any favors.”

“You plan on informing them?” Momma asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No,” Harry said, shaking his head. “Even if it was black magic, I wouldn’t tell the Council if your daughters wanted to keep it hidden. That said, someone tipped the Council off that there was black magic afoot here. The way the potion was used might call things into question. Combine it with the fae attacks...”

Momma pursed her lips and looked at the two of us. “Why did you create the potion?”

“Because the alternative method of helping Rosie was unacceptable,” Molly said.

“Better something she can imbibe herself that helps with the cravings than mind control,” I said. “We know the Laws.”

Harry let out a snort. “Still pushed it, grasshoppers.  The use of the potion for an alternate cure toes the line. ”

“She’s _pregnant_ , Harry,” we said. “Rosie was an addict, and there was nothing in the potion that would harm the baby. We needed her to be able to _care_ about her kid.”

“I know, I know,” Harry said, raising his hands. “And you did so in a way that should be safe to you and to her. It still pushed the line.”

“And the Council?” Momma asked. “What would they say?”

“I can’t say for sure,” Harry said. “They didn’t break any laws, as far as I’m concerned, and their souls aren’t tainted by black magic. They started learning early enough that they knew to avoid the pitfalls. That said, the potion is in a gray area, and the Council could react poorly. They probably won’t, but there’s no way to know until they present their case.”

“Then they shouldn’t go,” Momma said. “If they’re going to react poorly.”

“We need to, Momma. They need to know that the person that hurt Alicia has been taken down,” we said pleadingly. “The potion would come out eventually, and it’d be worse if they didn’t find out from us. Like we were trying to hide it.”

Our mother looked at us, and her emotions were a cacophonous mess. She was angry, worried, tired, afraid, and sad. We’d gone over what happens to lawbreakers before, what the Wardens would do, and she probably guessed at least how close we’d come. “I just want you safe.”

“We know, Momma,” we said. “But we did make the potion. We are responsible for our own actions, and we can make it clear that the black magic was dealt with. We love you so much, but we need to do this.”

“It’s not right,” she said.

“It’s their choice, Charity,” Father Forthill said. He’d arrived at some point, but for some reason we hadn’t noticed him until he was ready to be noticed. “You’ve raised two wonderful daughters, but they’re entering adulthood. They deserve the right to their responsibilities and actions.”

“Charity, they’ll be fine,” Harry said. “Come Hell or high water, they will return to you safe and well.”

Momma wrapped both of us into a hug. “They had better, Harry.”

“You have my word.”

We looked over to Father Forthill. He watched us, offering a smile for a second. We returned it, briefly, before sighing. “We wish Daddy was here.”

“I know what he’d say,” Momma said. “Dresden is a good man, and he’s worth trusting. We need to have faith.”

“How long?” Molly asked Harry.

“Tomorrow or the next day. I’ll contact them today, and they should have it set up pretty quick,” Harry said.

“It’d be quicker if we were the warlocks,” I murmured. “Not too long though.”

Harry nodded. “This should have decent priority. I have a few tricks  up my sleeve to smooth it along though.”

Momma hugged us tighter. “It’s not too late for you to put this aside.”

“Knowing what we know is out there, Momma?” Molly asked.

I shook my head. “Too much is coming. We can’t.”

She sighed. “I know. I know, my babies. You’re too much like your father in that way.”

“I’ll keep them safe, Charity, I promise.” Harry smiled.

Momma nodded. “I will pray for you. All three of you.”


	47. Chapter Forty-Two

Harry picked us up in the afternoon two days later. He’d been driving his car, an older Volkswagen Bug that he calls the Blue Beetle. I’m sure it actually had been blue once, maybe a lifetime ago. Now, however, the car was a hodgepodge of colors. The hood was  painted gray, with little flecks of red along  its edges. The car’s doors were painted white, red, and green,  creating a sort of mosaic that spoke  of  numerous repairs  done as opposed to like new German engineering. The latest  damage in the Beetle’s long war against Harry’s life’s craziness happened from someone rear-ending Harry, knocking him into a wall. 

Harry took us to a warehouse located not too far from the lake. It was rundown, old, and frankly, it was probably long abandoned. That made it the perfect clandestine place for a meeting with the White Council in our city. The orange evening light made it almost look sinister. Shadows ran longer and darker, emphasizing the flaws and cracks in the building,  and the sunlight reflecting off the windows gave the appearance of orange eyes staring down at us, waiting. 

There were few cars out this way at this time of day, giving this place even more of a feeling of isolation and dread. I knew what had gone on here in my memories. If Molly or I had been the actual Warlock, if we’d modified our friends’ minds to make them  _fear_ the drugs, we’d be here with a lot more issues.

“This is the place, right?” Molly asked, looking from Harry to me. She’d won shotgun this time, and I sat in back. She wasn’t scared here, but she shared the same feeling of uneasy anticipation that I had. This wasn’t going to be fun. Dealing with bureaucracies never was, but given that there were people here that genuinely didn’t like Harry, we needed to figure out how to not let them try something stupid. 

Harry pulled the Beetle into a parking space and turned it off. Its engine gave a  shivering wheeze and shuddered  a couple of times before it finally silenced.

“Yeah, Grasshopper. This is it,” Harry said, and before we could ask more questions, he stepped out of the car. Molly and I followed, joining his side as he started toward the building. He paused for a second and looked around.

Molly and I did the same. Nobody was there to our eyesight, but there was someone…  _there_ . Molly and I locked our sight on the veiled person just before the air began to shimmer. 

The man who stepped out was handsome. He was clearly Hispanic and of average height, standing at just over six feet tall. His skin was the bronze that statues were made of, and the brief look at his eyes told me that he had ones I could get lost in for days after the soulgaze. His mustache and beard accentuated his cheekbones and I started wondering things that I probably shouldn’t have been wondering about him. Then I noticed his clothing and gear.  He wore both the gray cloak of the Wardens and one of their silver swords at his left hip. At his right, he had a holster holding a semiautomatic pistol of some sort, and on his military-style web belt, several hand grenades were equipped. If I had to guess, I’d say that this man was Warden Carlos Ramirez, and he was far more attractive than I’d imagined him being.

“Good veil,” Harry said, then he glanced at the two of us. “Much better than the other day.”

“I wasn’t here the other day,” Ramirez said, his lips quirking into an almost perfect smile. It didn’t hurt to look, but there was no way I was acting on this.

“Your work?” Harry asked.

“Hard not to make it look easy,” he said, confidence shining through both his words and his emotions. “It’s a curse to be so damned talented when I’m already this obscenely good-looking, but I do my best to keep going. Just soldier on as best I can.”

Molly looked at me.  _Oh, so that’s how it is, Fai_ .

_He’s cute_ , I sent with a shrug.  _And he’s funny. He’s not that much older than us either._

_He’s definitely cute_ .  _I’ll give you that._ Molly smiled.

“Ramirez,” Harry said, clearly answering the other Warden’s greeting. He then gestured to each of us in turn. “These are Faith and Molly Carpenter.”

Carlos took a good long look at us. “Ladies. So I hear you are this man’s apprentices?  Harry, how did you end up with two lovely young women working with you?”

“They’re seventeen, ‘los.”

“For only a couple more weeks,” I commented. “Legally adults then.”

Carlos gave me a  contemplative look and then another to my sister,  followed by a wary one to Harry . “Well, I can see that Harry’s protective of you. See, it makes sense. After all, if you fell for my ridiculous good looks, it would make things awkward between you.”

“Let’s go with that,” Molly said with a grin. “Besides, I’m sure you have ladies closer to where you live.”

“Yes, of course,” Carlos said, and then he gestured toward the door with his hand. “They’re ready for you inside, but Harry, could you come with me a minute? I do need to have a conversation with you.” He looked over to us. “As much as it pains me, it needs to be private.”

“Sure. Faith, Molly, I’ll be right back.”

We nodded. “Okay, Harry.”

“I wouldn’t head inside just yet, ladies. Wait out here for Dresden. It’ll probably be better if you walk in together,” Carlos said, offering an apologetic smile. He really was concerned for Harry and for us. He definitely found us attractive too. That was a nice feeling. 

“Right,” we said. It made sense. It wasn’t like he was trying to keep us stuck in one spot or anything. He just didn’t want us heading in without Harry. The two of them headed off to talk. They really hadn’t gone all that far, but they’d asked for privacy. We decided to give it to them.

For about a minute, anyway.

With a brief effort, we focused, and we  _Listened_ . Listening wasn’t magic exactly,  but it was more a trick of concentration. It allowed us to increase what we could hear, and it let us hear the conversation between Ramirez and Harry even as we looked toward the warehouse.

“...victims?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, I did. The little girl’s in decent enough shape, but I couldn’t find the other victim. The hospital said she checked out on her own,” Ramirez said.

“Strange,” Harry said. “But the use on Alicia should be enough anyway.”

“Helps that he’s dead already, Harry.” Ramirez looked back toward us. “Looked at the others too. Potion acted as expected on the girl. They were smart there. There might be something that trips them up though.”

“What?” Harry asked. “They didn’t do anything wrong. Surely the Council will see that.”

“Maybe,” Ramirez said. “But… I’m not sure.”

“Why?”

“Well, the way the battle in Oregon played out,” Ramirez said. “Sure, once Summer attacked the rear, we gave one hell of a beating. Morgan even got up close and personal with the Red King himself.”

“Morgan killed him?” Wait. Was the Red King dead? That’d be something amazing.

“Not exactly, no, but the Red King won’t be feeding well for a while. He got through the Red King’s belly before having to fight off and cut down a Duke and a pair of Counts. The Red King got away, sadly.”

Okay. Wow. That was impressive. We still had issues with  _one_ Red Court vampire, and Morgan took on the King? Not just that, he’d almost won? Our respect for the Warden shot way up.

“So, why does that make you not sure?”

“They attacked Luccio’s boot camp to draw off our heavies,” Ramirez said. “Right as we had them by the balls. Sunrise was on its way and the fairies blocked their way into the Nevernever. So they found the boot camp and attacked it.”

We winced.

“So… Luccio and the newbies?”

“McCoy, Listens-to-Wind, and Martha Liberty are leading a force from the battle to relieve the camp.”

“Are leading. Meaning they’re not back yet.” Harry sighed. “Things couldn’t be easy.”

We stopped Listening there, and we broke apart.

_So?_ Molly sent.  _How much?_

I shrugged.  _The Merlin and the Gatekeeper are likely to be the only ones here initially. Luckily we didn’t do anything wrong._

Molly nodded.  _But what if he decides otherwise?_

_We appeal to the Gatekeeper and stall for time,_ I sent.  _Besides, the actual black magic user is dead. Killed by the fae that kidnapped me._ I shrugged.  _Not sure why Ramirez couldn’t find Sandy though._

_Poor Parker. He was a bit on the idiotic side, but it was probably better that the fetches got him than the Wardens._

_For the Venatori’s sake, yeah, it was._ I shook my head, trying to get myself focused, and then I heard the roar of a motorcycle engine, and I felt the otherworldly presence of an approaching fae.  _Weird. I’d have thought she’d hide herself._

_Her?_ Molly asked.  _Why is she here?_

_Harry, most likely_ . I blinked as a flash of memory hit me.  _Make that definitely Harry. Though why he’d call her in when we’re definitely innocent is beyond me._

The motorcycle  wound its  way down the street through the alleys and potholes between the warehouses, and then it came to a complete stop next to the Blue Beetle. The rider flicked the kickstand down, and he and his passenger got off the bike. Though I’d barely seen them during the rescue,  I knew who they were , the Summer Knight, Fix, and the Summer Lady, Lily.  Their presences were unmistakable.

They approached us.  Lily looked us over and gave a small frown that stayed for half a second before shifting into a smile. She had a bit of pity coming off of her. “Miss Carpenter and Miss Carpenter, it is good to see the two of you up and about considering how you were when we last met.”

I smiled and offered a slight bow. “Lady Lily, my mother was happy with the result of the fulfillment of that debt.”

“You’re Harry’s apprentices,” Lily said. “You don’t need to be formal with me.”

“Never hurts to,” Molly said.

Fix nodded at that and offered a salute to Harry. He and  Carlos approached.  Carlos had never met the Summer Lady or her Knight before, so Harry introduced them when they finally made it to our side. Then  Carlos led the five of us through a veil that protected the warehouse from perception. Two Wardens stood at the doorway to search for concealed weaponry.

There was even an animate statue of a temple dog. I vaguely recalled that they could be used to detect a variety of things, and as it began to pass us over, Harry felt a bit nervous. It paused a second on me, not my sister. After letting out a slight chuffing sound, it returned to its post by the door.

“Time to head inside then?” I asked.

“Of course,” Ramirez said. “Once you’re all in, we can get the circle closed.”

“Why do we need to close it?” Molly asked.

“Well, there _is_ a war on, and with this many wizards gathered in one place, even for something like this,”  Ramirez said. “Well, it’s a good idea to prevent magical intrusion.”

“Basically, grasshoppers, it, like the Wardens standing guard, is for protection. If we’d actually brought the warlock with us, it’d be for protection against anything he could bring with him,” Harry said levelly. “Come on in.”

W e entered the warehouse, following behind our mentor. I had a flash of memory. A hood. A blindfold. This was where Molly would have been consigned to the Doom of Damocles. This is where they would have executed her.

Judging from the bloodstain on the concrete floor of the warehouse, it was where there  _had_ been an execution, recently even. Standing in a loose circle around the dark brown stain were about fourteen wizards, but my eyes were drawn to two.  One was a tall, broad-shouldered wizard with long white hair and a long silvery beard, perfectly groomed. His eyes were winter sky blue and alert, and his features were long, solemn and gave the air of nobility. This had to be the Merlin, Arthur Langtry.

Standing to his right was another older wizard, but this one’s beard was trimmed short. His long gray hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and his face was craggy with scars and a grim look. Sheathed at his side was what had to be a silver-bladed longsword. His hands weren’t on it, instead his arms were crossed in front of him. This had to be Donald Morgan, second-in-command of the Wardens.

Neither of the two men looked exactly as I imagined them, but they were close. I just hoped that their personalities wouldn’t be so terrible. Who was I kidding?

Harry continued to lead us in, and we were followed closely by Fix and Lily. I gave another look around the room as we continued forward. What was that that Ramirez was bringing in? Was that a body bag? Why would he have a body bag?

_You don’t think…_ Molly sent.

_Parker’s body? I mean, it’s possible. He died on our front lawn._ I shrugged and turned my attention back to the two wizards we’d have to convince that Parker was the actual warlock. It shouldn’t have been too hard. They wouldn’t accuse us without proof.  We didn’t do anything other than make a potion to help our friends.

Morgan nodded to Ramirez, which must have been some sort of signal as he went to pull the doors closed. However, just as he reached up to chain the doors up, they opened again, revealing a tall and ominous figure that I’d only seen in a dream. He wore formal black robes with a deep purple cowl that left his features shadowed save for the glimmer of his dark eyes. This was the Gatekeeper, another member of the Senior Council, and he was looking right at the Merlin, emotionless.

That is to say, that Molly and I felt  _nothing_ from him emotionally. He had to be very good at hiding it, due to the tenets of his position, and as he passed us by he gave us a glance. He took up a spot about halfway between the Merlin and us before leaning on his aged, slender staff. He looked at my sister and I again, and I got the impression of a smile playing on his lips for a second before it passed. Rashid, the Gatekeeper, was mysterious.

The Merlin narrowed his eyes and then he said something in Latin that I probably should have recognized, but my Latin was limited to basic words at the moment. I needed to rectify that when I could, but learning with Harry,  I hadn’t needed to just yet. I did recognize Harry’s name among what the Merlin said, and when Harry squeezed our shoulders, stepping forward, I got the gist.

“First thing,” Harry said. “Is there anyone here who doesn’t speak English?”

The Merlin folded his arms and replied in Latin. He wasn’t amused with Harry’s talking at the moment. It was probably something about how Council meetings were conducted entirely in Latin. Backwards jerks needed a new lingua franca.

“Granted that Latin is our traditional lingual medium,” Harry said in reply, giving a smile. “Our esteemed guests, Lily, the Summer Lady, and Fix, the current Summer Knight, are not versed in its vernacular. I would not dare to show the slightest lack of consideration to these prestigious visitors and envoys of our allies in Summer.”

_Translation: Summer helped us out recently, we need to play nice with them._ Molly sent, and I tried not to let out a snort. I managed to almost succeed. 

“Very well,” said the Merlin as he narrowed his eyes. He definitely wasn’t happy about this. “The Council welcomes the presence of the Summer Lady and her Knight to this conclave. It extends its hospitality and protection while they remain within our demesnes.”

I smiled. That meant that we could actually do our testimony properly. If we were stuck trying to figure out the Latin words, we could easily get trapped with them.  That wouldn’t work at all. I turned my attention to Lily, who had started saying something about Titania and her orders. Apparently, she had gifts to bestow thanks to heroism. Two people.

“Warden Morgan,” Lily said, turning to him. “Your courageous defense of the Venatori and their retainers, and your direct assault on the Red King, causing him injury, were feats that my Queen, Titania has never seen bettered. She extends her compliments and congratulations to you, Warden, and to the Council you serve. Additionally, she will not leave such acts of daring and dedication unremarked or unrewarded. As such, she has bidden me bestow upon you this token.”

T he Summer Lady pulled out an oaken leaf made of pure silver, and she walked up to Morgan, pinning it upon his cloak, just over his heart. “I name thee friend and esquire to the Summer Court, Warden Morgan. Shall you find yourself in peril near the realm of the Sidhe, once, and once only, you need but touch this device and call aloud on Titania for aid.”

Morgan’s face didn’t do justice what his feelings were at that very moment. He was simultaneously surprised, worried, intrigued, bashful and grateful. He finally settled upon one and performed a deep bow at the waist, replying to her. “I thank thee, your Highness.”

I ignored the banter between Harry and Fix, as I was pretty sure I knew what was next. It was a memory. This much was unchanged. Except… Morgan had injured the Red King. I didn’t think he did that in my memories. Lily presenting him and Harry with the Order of the Silver Oak, describing Harry’s actions at Arctis Tor as an assault, unleashing Summer Fire to draw the forces of Winter away? That was the same. Nowhere was the mention of the Outsider that attacked, nor was there mention  of what Mab had done with me. I doubted Lily even knew about that one. 

L ily bowed her head to the Merlin after giving Harry his gift. “My Queen wishes you to know, honored Merlin, that while glad to be able to go and aid the Council against the threat posted by the Red Court, Winter’s forces have returned to their original positions. As such, we have no choice but to have the forces of Summer remain vigilant of our borders. Until that situation changes, my Queen bids you caution. Summer will only be able to offer limited assistance to her allies.”

The Merlin broke off staring at  Harry finally, shaking himself out of it. “Of course, your Highness,” he said. “Please convey to Her Majesty that the White Council’s gratitude is great, and assure her that her friendship will not be forgotten, even in these desperate times.”

“Of course,” Lily said, bowing her head again. “It will be done, and thus my duties are discharged.” She retreated to her original position, next to the Summer Knight. Harry muttered something about the medal, and Lily subvocalized back. 

Molly and I really weren’t paying attention to that. Instead, we looked around the room. The Merlin wasn’t happy in the slightest. Harry’d gotten one over on him, but he still had the power here. It was his Council, and as such, it was his job to  direct it. This conclave, however, was Harry’s idea. He’d called it, but was it really necessary?

The Merlin beckoned over another wizard, a dried-up looking old man with a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles hanging on his nose. What remained of his hair was pulled back on his head with gel and it was a dirtier white than the Merlin’s. Whoever he was, he spoke with the Merlin, placing his head together with him in a whispered conference. Occasionally, one or both would glance our way, but they did nothing as of yet.

Finally, the Merlin called out. “Order.” The room settled down immediately. “Warden Dresden, may we continue with your explanation for the necessity of this conclave?”

Harry stepped into the circle, and he gestured for us to follow. We walked further  into the circle, until we paused on the heavy bloodstain located there. The moment we reached the bloodstain,  Molly and I doubled over with a retching gasp. Rage. Fear. Death. A boy had died here. Recently. He was young, around our age, and he’d been killed. Here. By the man standing next to the Merlin wielding the Council’s justice. The boy had been a warlock, and we stood next to Harry where it happened. 

“Easy now,” Harry said, rubbing our backs. We reached around him to each other, and squeezed our hands. We weren’t warlocks. Why had this happened here? The warlock who’d bewitched Alicia and Sandy was dead already. We stood and separated.

“If the girls with you are a part of it, you had best explain swiftly, Warden Dresden,” said the Merlin.

“Right,” Harry said. “I have come before the Council with witnesses to the death of a warlock, one who had broken the Fourth Law. I have brought them before the Council so they could verify that justice has been done.”

“Where is this warlock’s body?” The Merlin asked. “If he is dead already.”

Harry glanced back, and  Carlos gestured to the two Wardens that held  the body bag. They brought it forward, and unzipped it partially, revealing the still form of Parker’s cadaver. He still wore the clothes that he’d died in.

“I present to you, Parker Young, the warlock, as witnessed by my two apprentices,” Harry said, gesturing us forward. “Faith and Molly Carpenter witnessed the crime as one of the victims was their own sister.”

“He had enthralled Alicia, taken over her mind as quick as she answered the door,” I said, softly. “Our only goal was to get him to let her go.”

“Our friend Sandra Marling was the other target,” Molly said. “She… she passed out, and was in the hospital.”

The Merlin nodded and glanced at the older wizard whom he had conferred with. He then looked at each of us, and finally his gaze went back to Harry. “Warden Dresden, have you examined the victims?”

“I have looked at the younger girl, Merlin. The woman had checked herself out of the hospital and is currently unavailable.”

“Curious, but ultimately unimportant. Have you had the condition confirmed by another Warden?”

Ramirez stepped forward. “I have done so, Merlin. The girl has some psychic trauma, lingering from when she was controlled. Like a knife-blade, but I believe she will recover. With a family that loving, she will have to.” He smiled at Molly and I. It was a nice smile.

The Merlin nodded. “ Misses Carpenter, how did the warlock die?”

“He was killed by a failed summon,” I said. “Whatever he had summoned chose to kill him rather than obey him.”

“We were busy trying to get our sister out of there,” Molly said.

The wizard whom the Merlin had conferred with cleared his throat as he looked at us. The Merlin turned his attention to him, leaning his head close. The old man whispered in his ear something, and the Merlin pulled away after a few seconds. “It would seem that the conclave itself would be unnecessary, had it just been a dead warlock, Warden Dresden. However, Wizard Peabody has seen fit to enlighten me on details that  make this conclave more necessary .”

Harry blinked, and he looked to the wizard that had whispered to the Merlin. “ What sorts of details?”

Peabody. That name actually made me shudder. Something about him… I couldn’t remember the specifics right now, but something about him made my skin crawl. Still. “If this is about the potion, we were going to bring it up.”

Molly nodded. “It’s similar to the one used to deal with the effects of Red Court venom. It deals with physical addictions and helps with mental ones.”

The Merlin leveled his gaze at us. “Such a potion does exist, yes. Wardens Dresden and Ramirez, I assume the two of you knew of this potion as well?”

Harry nodded. “Yes, honored Merlin, I knew of it. I have chastised my apprentices for the way they have handled the potion, but it isn’t lawbreaking.”

“Not in of itself, no,” the Merlin said. “A potion like that one, willingly used, does not violate the free will of others. However, when combined with continued exposure to drugs, the potion can catalyze a reaction within its imbiber. And that can lead to what has happened.”

“What are you getting at?” Harry asked, and then after barely a moment, he tacked on, “honored Merlin?”

“According to what I have learned from Wizard Peabody, the male user of the potion murdered a member of the White Court in cold blood,” said the Merlin. “And then he took his own life.”

“What?” Molly and I asked. “No… that’s not possible.”

Peabody’s lips briefly twitched, and we  thought we felt a sick sort of joy coming from him,  but it was brief and there for the ghost of a second. However, he stayed quiet as the Merlin continued speaking, “I’m afraid that it is. Nelson Lenhardt is dead, and so is Madrigal Raith.  A bottle with the word ‘tea’ written upon it was found with the bodies, half-full of a potion.”

No. Drew had said that Nelson was using again, but we didn’t think he’d overdose or that he’d kill Darby Crane. Why hadn’t he taken the potion?  Surely it would have helped him.

“Well, that’s clearly not their fault,” Harry said. “The boy chose to continue his habit and he chose to abuse their trust.”

“Clearly,” the Merlin said, his lips pursing a bit. “That their trust could be abused speaks to their lack of judgment. The use of this potion should be done under controlled conditions to ensure the safety of the imbiber. To do otherwise is to push close to a Law violation. Were I a lesser man, I would charge the both of you with a First Law, Third Law, and Fourth Law violation, but the potion does not do that directly. You are not directly responsible for the actions someone taking your potion does.”

“But… he still...” we murmured.

“However, this does not absolve you of guilt when dealing with the White Court. As the situation with the White Court is tenuous at best, anything that might get them to act beyond their current approach is dangerous. Perhaps your current mentor is rubbing off on you too much. After all, he is responsible for starting _this_ war. One would think that he would have gotten that through to you and you would have learned from _his_ mistakes. As you are looking to learn the Art, perhaps it is best you spend time under the tutelage of someone who is _not_ Harry Dresden.”

“What?” Harry asked, our voices joining his. “You can’t do that!

“Yes, I think you'll find that we can. Someone needs to make sure you won't make mistakes. If you're to survive long enough to become full members of this Council, you will need someone who can ensure discipline. At the recommendation of the Senior Council, you shall take Donald Morgan as your mentor.”

We blinked. “But if we don’t want to have him as our mentor?”

The Merlin stared at us, unblinking. He said nothing at all.

Crap.


	48. Chapter Forty-Three

We stared at the Merlin, and then we looked to Harry.  Empty night. Learning magic was important,  one of the most important things to us .  Admittedly, w e’d left Harry before, for good reason at the time, but when we came back, when we accepted the apprenticeship under him, we didn’t expect anything like this. Hell’s bells,  going before the council and being called out for a  _murder_ done by  _Nelson?_ Who could have predicted that? Drew’d already said that he had started taking drugs again,  but murder? Admittedly, it was of Madrigal Raith, but still. We didn’t know how we needed to handle this. How could we? We’d come prepared to argue for our lives if we needed to, but arguing for the chance to continue our learning under Harry? 

T he Gatekeeper stood impassive on his part of the circle, and we couldn’t get a good read on his emotions. The representatives of Summer, its Knight and Lady, stood back a bit from us, and they radiated something between sympathy and pity. There was a little bit of worry there too. They’d helped as much as they could and no more. Then o ur eyes flicked to Morgan. He stood  next to the Merlin , a little bewildered. After all, he’d just been rewarded by the Summer Court, and now he was maybe possibly being saddled with  _us_ . The Merlin had effectively said that we had to have Morgan as our mentor now. But… we wanted  _Harry_ . We’d agreed to be with  _Harry_ . 

“Honored Merlin,” we began, looking back to the man. We couldn’t let our voices quiver. Not now. There was no telling what the Merlin would have us doing next if we couldn’t talk right. “Must we apprentice under him?”

The Merlin continued staring at us for half a second, and then his lips curled into a smile that was barely lukewarm. “You are young. You have made a mistake that has cost someone their life. However, as you did not end it yourselves, you are not Lawbreakers. Yet. Without proper guidance,” he said, waving his arm to Morgan, “you will risk becoming just like the one who stood where you stand four days ago. He was young, too. I believe that Warden Dresden called the warlock a  _child_ .”

Harry’s mood darkened.  He was already upset with the Merlin over what he was doing. How he was press-ganging us, but bringing up the warlock… 

“I brought them here as my apprentices,” Harry said, looking to the Merlin. Somehow he managed to keep the anger he felt out of his voice. “They may have made mistakes, but it is my responsibility to correct them. You can’t just force them away.”

“Warden Dresden,” the Merlin said. “I think you’ll find that it is well within the abilities of the Senior Council to remove apprentices from mentors that are unsuited to them. You, at the very least, are inadequate to suit their needs, given your duties as North American Regional Commander.”

“We were his apprentices before he became a Warden, Honored Merlin,” we said. “And what about Warden Morgan? Isn’t he a captain or something?”

“He has more experience in his role than Warden Dresden, young ones.” It really was amazing how the Merlin could be simultaneously kind and condescending in his tone while also switching to a chastising one against Harry. “He would be able to exercise his duties while also teaching you.”

“Morgan, do you have an opinion on this?” Harry asked. “The Merlin basically just volunteered you to teach a pair of young wizards.”

Morgan gave a heaving sigh and looked the two of us over. His gaze was piercing, and though we were careful not to meet his eyes, we could feel it like pinpoints, taking in everything he could. This was th e man who had made Harry’s life Hell for several years. He genuinely believed that Harry had go t ten away with casting Black Magic. However, his opinion of us, behind that gaze, seemed more to be one of curiosity than anger or distrust. There was a bit of worry there too.  Maybe he didn’t actually want to teach us.  Maybe he felt that he wasn’t going to be a good teacher. We only got the actual feelings with our empathy, not the reasons behind them.

“Dresden,” Morgan said, almost coming off as reluctant. “The Honored Merlin has suggested that I teach them instead of you. If it is the will of the Senior Council, I will do as I must.”

“Well said, Warden Morgan,” said the Merlin. “Of course, if you are, for whatever reason, unable to perform these duties, the Senior Council will be able to find a replacement that is suitable.”

I glanced to my sister as we separated. This definitely wasn’t something that had happened in my memories. Then again, we were here under different circumstances. However, there really was something more here. I squeezed Molly’s hand and turned back toward the Merlin and Morgan.  I needed to try and convince him. “Honored Merlin, sir. We’ve been learning from Harry Dresden for three years now. He’s been an excellent mentor, and we’ve learned a lot from him.  We might not know Latin or Council procedure, but we know a lot about magic thanks to him. We know about our gift and how not to abuse it thanks to him.”

“Thank you, Grasshopper,” Harry said softly. He looked up to the Merlin and Morgan. “One thing I’ve learned while teaching them is that I can’t force them into any decisions they don’t want to make. If they want to learn from Morgan, I won’t stop them, but it needs to be _their_ decision, not something forced on them by someone else.”

The Merlin looked past Harry to us. “ As I said before, it is very much within the rights of the Senior Council to reassign apprentices. You are clearly inadequate for these two, given your own history. Warden Morgan is not. He has proven time and again his capabilities. Perhaps after you have a few more decades under your belt in your position, you will be ready for apprentices. As you are now, you need to focus on your current responsibilities.  It’s this Council’s recommendation that  the girls learn under someone else,  whether from Warden Morgan or otherwise. ”

“The Council’s, or yours?” I asked, and Harry lit up. If he didn’t have the majority, would he even be pushing for this? If he’d had the majority four years ago, would Harry have been dead?

“It doesn’t matter,” said the Merlin. “For all intents and purposes, I am the Senior Council right now. I hold six out of the seven votes, thus my decision is what matters.”

“But the Gatekeeper still gets a chance to make his own,” Harry said. “He has yet to.”

“This is not a capital crime,” said the Merlin. “Thus an open vote is unnecessary for it. Even if it were, the result would be unchanged by the Gatekeeper’s decision.”

“If you’re going to be taking the choice of who to learn from away from my apprentices,” Harry said, folding his arms over his chest. “The Gatekeeper has a vote. He should damn well get the chance to use it.”

“I agree with Warden Dresden, Honored Merlin,” Morgan said quietly, and a simultaneous wave of disgust and determination passed through him. “Perhaps the Gatekeeper should help make this decision.”

“Very well,” the Merlin said with a narrowing of his eyes. He turned his head toward the Gatekeeper. “We’ll allow this to play to its conclusion. Gatekeeper, what is your opinion on this matter?”

The Gatekeeper stood there, saying nothing. His gaze fell upon Molly and I though. We could feel it from behind his darkened cowl.

“Gatekeeper!” the Merlin called. “How find you?”

“I find the need for clarification,” the Gatekeeper said deliberately in response. “I beg the Council’s indulgence, and the indulgence of the apprentices to be on this matter.”

“Clarification?” the Merlin asked. “It is clear what had happened.”

The Gatekeeper tilted his head. “Regardless, there are issues that I must obtain clarification on before making my decision. Simply assigning them to someone else is not something done on a whim, Honored Merlin.”

“But it makes no difference how you decide.”

“Be that as it may,” the Gatekeeper said gently. “I feel the need to understand the Misses Carpenter a bit more before I render my decision. As it is our duty as members of the White Council, let alone the Senior Council to ensure the education and enrichment of young wizards’ talents, I must consider this.”

The Merlin took a deep breath. He wasn’t happy about this, more frustrated. This wasn’t how he was expecting things to go either, clearly. “I suppose it would not be unreasonable to allow you your clarification.”

“Thank you,” said the Gatekeeper, and he turned his attention fully on my sister and I. “It was Faith and Molly, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, sir,” we said. We knew the Gatekeeper’s name as well, but it was probably proper to keep referring to him by his title.

“Yes, of course.” The Gatekeeper lowered his hood, revealing his face. It was long with sharp features like weathered old leather. He had a short beard with silver running through it and a head of short, stiff silver hair. One eye was dark and the other had a pair of silvered scars running through it from his hairline to his jaw. It had been replaced by what appeared to be a silver ball bearing. Of course, we knew it was more than that. That wasn’t something to bring up here. “I would like to know the reason you decided to use this potion. The reason that you decided to give it to your friends.”

We nodded, and then we separated.

“Both Rosie and Nelson were addicted to heroin,” Molly said. “They’d tried rehab, but they fell off the horse many times before. They couldn’t stop themselves.”

“And then Rosie got pregnant,” I said. “Again. She’d lost the first child due to her drug use; we couldn’t let her lose a second one. The problem was getting her to stop.”

“Your goal, then, was to help your friends stop using drugs,” said the Gatekeeper, and we nodded. “It is admirable to try and help those you care about. Why this potion in particular?”

“It had helped me,” I said. “When I was attacked by a Red Court vampire. Harry’s potion instructions had the idea behind it in there, and Molly made it for me.”

“I’m just glad it worked for you,” Molly said, squeezing my hand.

“I’m glad it worked for the both of you,” Harry said.

The Gatekeeper nodded. “I assume you associated one addiction with anothe r. You guessed that it might work.”

“It was a lucky guess. At first we weren’t even sure the potion would work for normal addictions,” Molly said. “We made a batch and had Nelson try it. It worked for him, and he’d stopped as far as we knew.”

“And nothing in the potion would be harmful to a baby, thus we gave it to Rosie, once we’d confirmed Nelson hadn’t had the desire to use,” I said. “She hasn’t used heroin since. I don’t know when Nelson started back up.”

The Gatekeeper looked to Harry and then back to us. His lips pursed. “If the Council will allow me one further indulgence, I must deliberate before rendering my decision.”

The Merlin just shot him a look, which the Gatekeeper returned with a bit of intensity. “It would not… It’s high time this farce ends and a decision is made!”

“I would completely agree,” said the Gatekeeper. He stepped toward the circle marked on the floor and smudged it with his boot, breaking the protection on this room. He flicked a loved hand, and the lock on the chained door jumped off, followed closely by the chains.

“What is the meaning of this?” the Merlin asked, outrage rushing through him.

Molly and I looked toward the door as the Gatekeeper moved to it. Now that the circle was gone, we could feel beyond the door. A group of scared people had arrived, and as the Gatekeeper opened the door, revealing one of the Warden guards about to knock, we saw why.

“Get clear of the door, fool!” an older man’s voice yelled. “Everyone, inside! Hurry! They’re right behind us!”

Outside there was an eerie howl and thunder cracked so loud that it shook the concrete floor.  Oh. Oh God. I remembered this. As young people around our age and maybe a little younger, dressed in brown robes, scurried through the door, I remembered. These were trainees, frightened ones. The young woman with short, curly blonde hair and dimpled cheeks  leading them had to be Luccio. She’d been trapped in that body by a necromancer. 

She was followed swiftly by more trainees and a brawny dark-skinned woman with short gray hair, helping a lanky guy with a wounded leg. I couldn’t remember her name, but from what I felt from her… she was powerful.  Maybe she was Martha Liberty. Bringing in the last of the trainees was an old man with braided hair and Native American features. There was only one person that could be: Injun Joe, which sounded so offensive in my head.  That had to be Harry’s fault or maybe his teacher’s. I’d have to find out his full name, unless he liked it.  Wait… wasn’t it Listens-to-Wind?

“I’m closing the way now!” Listens-to-Wind said after verifying the last of the trainees was inside, and he turned toward outside. 

There were more howls as the magic was cast and the chime of steel striking something. The warehouse rocked as something hit it, dust falling off the rafters. Then there was the sound of rushing wind and  finally, blessed silence.  Listens-to-Wind sagged and leaned against the doorway, trying to catch his breath. Then he rose and stood aside to let the  rest of his group come in.

Molly and I watched the door closely. One of the two that had remained outside was  _remarkably_ familiar, and we couldn’t help but smile. We didn’t exactly ignore the old man who entered first, bald, wearing overalls and a T-shirt,  who  held the door for the more important person who came in, the person who we’d been hoping to see.

Our father, Michael Carpenter,  passed through the doorway . He was dressed in his full knighting regalia: the white cloak, his mail and breastplate, and both hands of his were wrapped around the hilt of  _Amoracchius_ , which was covered in some sort of dark fluid. He looked around the room  once inside, a smile on his face and satisfaction on his heart.

He probably didn’t expect to receive two flying tackle-hugs though. “Daddy!”

We suppose we were lucky that he managed to get Amoracchius out of the way before we got there, but it had been a few days since we’d seen our father. Could anyone really blame us? He managed to get an arm around each of us, smiling down. “Careful girls, don’t want to crush your old man’s ribs, do you?”

“No, of course not,” I said softly, leaning on his chest. “It’s good to have you back, Daddy.”

“Yeah, it is,” Molly agreed, matching my position.

“Just who the hell is this now?” Carlos asked, clearly perturbed about our father, dressed in his full armor and holding a sword being inside.

“Didn’t you hear our yell?” I asked, looking to Carlos, but he shook his head.

“He’s a bloody hero,” the old man that came in with him said to the Latino Warden, preventing me from continuing. “If he hadn’t come along when he did, there’s no way any single one of us would have made it out alive.” He offered a hand to our father. “I’ve heard of you only by reputation, Sir Knight, but it’s a damned good thing you were there to meet. Thank you.”

I wiggled around my father  and helped support  _Amoracchius_ so he could grasp the man’s hand. “I am only a servant of His Divine Will,” Daddy said. “Any thanks you might have are rightly owed to Him, not I.”

“Aye,” the man said. “And thank God you came, Sir Knight.”

“Secure the building,” said the Merlin in a voice so quiet that I almost didn’t hear him, but Daddy clearly did.

“Girls, I need to help out here,” he said, letting us off.

“Of course, Daddy,” we said softly to him as he went and tapped Carlos and another Warden. They went off to secure the building, leaving us standing next to the old man Daddy had been talking to. The man gave us a pensive look and we did the same to him. A spark of recognition came to his eye, and he began to speak.

“So, you two are the apprentices that Harry mentioned back before that Black Court thing,” the man said. “Good thing you weren’t there for that.”

“Our family had taken us on vacation,” Molly said. “I’m Molly, and this is Faith.”

“I’m Ebenezar McCoy,” the old man said, and I mentally kicked myself for not remembering the name sooner. I also vaguely recalled a black staff associated with him. The one in his hands was a gnarled wood, so clearly that wasn’t it. “So, looks like we missed a bit. Care to fill an old man in on the goings on?”

“The Merlin wants to force us away from Harry,” I said. “Because we made a mistake.”

“Lots of people make mistakes. You didn’t end up causing an international incident, did you?”

“Not to our knowledge, but someone we tried to help ended up dead, and he took out a White Court vampire,” Molly said. “It wasn’t our fault, but he was using our help.”

“Well, that’s precarious. Still, it was a mistake, and you didn’t break any Laws. The Merlin would have been pushing for your execution then,” Wizard McCoy said, looking thoughtful. “Who did he want to place you with instead?”

“Warden Morgan,” we said as one.

“Well,” he said, pausing for a few seconds. We could feel him contemplating. “Perhaps there’s room for a little bit of compromise. Keep you with Harry, maybe have you learn from Morgan every so often. And if you’ve been training with him long enough, you might want to see about going along on the Warden training missions.”

“That could be good,” we said. “But how are we going to get that through?”

“Don’t worry so much about it.” Wizard McCoy smiled at us. “I’ve got a bit of an in with the Senior Council.”

Oh. Right.

McCoy left our side to go talk with the Gatekeeper as Carlos, the other Warden and our father finished securing the building. While that happened, the trainees were ushered into various parts of the warehouse, arranging themselves in a loose circle around the inner circle. Captain Luccio’s dulcet tones directed them, and then she went over to talk with Morgan as our father came back toward us with his Warden accompaniment.

The Merlin gestured, and Ebenezar McCoy, Martha Liberty, and Joseph Listens-to-Wind took spaces in the circle. “Warden Ramirez, is the building secure?”

“Yes, Honored Merlin,” Carlos said. “With the help of the Knight, we were able to ensure the security of this conclave once more.”

“Good,” the Merlin said. “Thank you.” He turned toward us. “Faith Carpenter, Molly Carpenter, the conclave has shifted back to your fate. Your lapse in judgment, resulting in the death of a member of the White Court and a mortal has you under scrutiny. As no Laws were broken in the process, the current decision of the Council is that you should have a new mentor. Preferably Donald Morgan. However, the Gatekeeper has yet to express his vote.”

“And, I believe, Honored Merlin,” Martha Liberty said, speaking up. “That Wizards McCoy, Listens-to-Wind and I get a vote as well. As such, I would like to ask a couple clarifying questions. I am sure that Wizard Listens-to-Wind and Wizard McCoy would as well.”

“By all means,” said the Merlin, and his mood gave the impression that he’d swallowed something very sour. “Ask away. In English, due to our guests.”

“Of course,” said Martha Liberty. “Misses Carpenter, who is your current mentor?”

“Harry Dresden,” we said with smiles on our faces. “He’s been teaching us for about three years.”

“Three years, hmm?” she asked. “So, in that time-frame, he never took you to a Council meeting?”

“To be fair, ma’am,” Harry said. “I didn’t come to many Council meetings in that time-frame.”

“Yes, of course.” Wizard Liberty directed her gaze toward Harry. She was calm. “Warden Dresden, just what is it that has the Merlin wanting to take the girls away from your tutelage?”

“From what he said, he believes that I have not taught them good judgment,” Harry said. “I disagree. It’s not wrong to extend trust. The twins wanted to help their friends who were addicted to drugs, and they went about it by creating a potion that would help alleviate that addiction. It’s not their fault that one of the people they gave it to continued to use drugs, and it’s definitely not their fault that he killed someone before dying himself.”

“Hoss, did you give them any warning about this potion before they brewed it?” Wizard McCoy asked.

“They did this one on their own,” Harry said. “They found the recipe in one of my references, and they re-purposed it.”

“Impressive,” Wizard McCoy said. “You might have to update your reference material if there are other potions like that in there that can cause side effects, but I don’t think that’s enough to take them away from you.”

“Thank you, sir,” Harry said, bowing his head just enough.

“Faith Carpenter, Molly Carpenter, what is it that you wish?” Wizard Listens-to-Wind asked. “You seem to have been trained well by Hoss Dresden. He has instilled in you a respect for the Laws. However, I can see why the Merlin might question your judgment in this matter. You drew close to the line, but you did not step over.”

“Sir,” Molly said, bowing her head to the man. “Harry has been an excellent teacher, and Faith and I would love to keep learning from him.”

“We love learning magic,” I said, picking up from my sister. “There’s a lot more to learn, and a lot to learn about it. Our parents instilled a sense of responsibility in us, and we need to use it to help people. What happened to Nelson and Madrigal Raith is something that we can’t take back, but all we did was give Nelson the potion to help with his heroin addiction.”

“Mmm….” Listens-to-Wind frowned in consideration.

The Merlin cleared his throat. “If the two of you had been better trained in recognizing trustworthy people, this would not have happened.”

“Honored Merlin,” Wizard McCoy said. “Everyone makes mistakes once in a while. They didn’t break the Laws, nor did Warden Dresden. Perhaps we can arrange a compromise?”

The Merlin suppressed a grimace, but it was clear to Molly and I in his emotions. He didn’t like that he wasn’t winning outright, but he’d take this. “Depends on the compromise.”

“Dresden keeps his apprentices,” Wizard McCoy said. “But they get additional training from Warden Morgan or Captain Luccio, or any of the other Wardens qualified to teach as needed.”

The Merlin closed his eyes for a second. “Gatekeeper, what say you?”

“Such a compromise would be an acceptable alternative,” said the Gatekeeper. “With the additional qualification that when they reach Wizard, they consider joining the Wardens. If that is acceptable to Captain Luccio and Warden Morgan?”

“Of course,” the blonde woman we’d identified as Luccio spoke up. “We would welcome Warden Dresden’s apprentices into our ranks when they are ready.”

Morgan simply nodded.

The Merlin nodded. “Wizard Listens-to-Wind?”

“I find the compromise acceptable.”

“Wizard Liberty?”

She nodded. “Yes. This seems like a far more reasonable state of affairs.”

“Then, with a majority vote,” the Merlin said, pausing and looking us over. “Faith and Molly Carpenter will remain Warden Dresden’s apprentices, supplemented by additional training from the Wardens with the eventual goal of becoming Wardens themselves. Welcome to the White Council, Misses Carpenter.”

Molly and I breathed out air that we hadn’t realized we were holding in. Harry clapped the two of us on the back and smiled.

The Merlin cleared his throat again. “Warden Dresden. I will be expecting the three of you at future Council meetings.”

“Of course, Honored Merlin,” Harry said with a slight bow.

The conclave ended not long after that. Somehow during that timeframe the sun had gone down completely, and Molly and I were practically worn out. The two of us huddled near each other while Harry worked with the wizards who had shown up to arrange how they would leave. As he was the one to call the conclave, he was the one responsible for making sure everyone got back okay. They had to file out in groups, staggering their departures so that nobody observed their comings and goings.

We’d have left sooner, but Daddy had left his truck in Oregon when he went to save the Senior Council and Captain Luccio’s training camp. As such, Daddy helped with the coordination while Molly and I waited as far away from that bloodstain in the middle of the warehouse as possible. Even so, we’d increased our shield strength as much as we could to keep that psychic stench out. We couldn’t wait for Harry to finish his duties so we could leave.

We adjusted our position some so that we stood proud when we were approached by the Council’s Justice, Warden-Captain Donald Morgan.

“Miss Carpenter, Miss Carpenter,” Morgan said, addressing us by name as he approached. As we looked at him, we noticed the scars on his face and arms. The man had been through a lot, and from what we knew, he saw a lot more than he wanted. 

“Warden Morgan,” we said respectfully. Most of our dislike for the man came from what he did to Harry. The years he’d hounded our mentor over the slightest thing, looking for an excuse to kill him. If things had gone differently here, we’d have been in the same boat, dragging Harry with us. “How can we help you?”

Morgan looked us over, his gaze  and expression unreadable. Luckily, we had more to go on than that. He had the feeling of contemplation with a hint of nervousness. He wasn’t entirely sure what to say or how to go about saying it. “What happened to the boy was not your fault alone.” Wow. That sounded like it practically hurt him to say it. “I know of the potion in question, and if used responsibly, it would not have caused his death. Unfortunately, it seems that your friend was not responsible and took advantage of your kindness.”

“Yeah,” we said softly. It was hard not to feel a little bitter about what happened. A part of us had genuinely liked Nelson, even if we’d started to drift away. He wasn’t exactly the man of our dreams, but we had liked him. Somewhat, anyway. “Lucky us.”

“Ultimately, learning how to not be taken advantage of comes from experience,” Morgan said. “It’s not something that can easily be taught. What I can teach you, when the time comes, is how to survive. How to thrive.”

“Harry’s teaching us too,” we said.

“Not the way I will, I suspect.” Morgan glanced over to where Harry was directing another group of trainees to leave. “Dresden may not have it in him to do what must be done. If he had, the Merlin would not have needed to intervene.”

“Our father and—”

“It doesn’t matter. If he doesn’t have it in him to do what’s necessary, he does you a disservice.” Morgan’s hand tapped on the hilt of his now-sheathed blade. “But I have yet to evaluate your current skills. That will change. I will arrange something with Dresden for the evaluation, and you _will_ learn.”

We shivered at the intensity there. It seemed that even though Morgan  wasn’t actually going to be our primary teacher, he planned on taking the assistant role seriously. We really weren’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Additionally,” Morgan said, lightly clasping our shoulders. “I am interested in seeing how well you perform individually in addition to what you are doing now. There are a pair of twins training under Captain Luccio whom you will likely get along with.”

“Oh?” we asked. “Who are they?”

“Terry and Tina Trailman,” Morgan said. “They are adequate evokers. When you go to the camp, they will most likely be your guides.”

We nodded. “Thank you.”

Morgan squeezed our shoulders. “It’s time that I go, now. Good luck to the both of you.”

“You as well,” we said, and Morgan let go of our shoulders, heading for the warehouse’s exit. As the warehouse was starting to be fully empty, we left with him, getting away from the psychic stench of the dead young warlock. It just wasn’t pleasant to be around. 

When we finally made it outside, we watched as Morgan left into the Nevernever, taking  the final group of trainees with him.  Wherever they were heading, I hoped their  journey would be a safe one. The trainees would be safe with Morgan. Molly and I might not have liked the man, but given what we knew about him, he was worth respecting. Learning from him would be interesting.

The moment the gateway closed, our father was at our side,  hugging us once more , and after only a few more minutes, so was Harry. The four of us climbed into the Beetle, Molly and I in the back seat, and Harry started driving off. It had been a long day, a long week, really, and despite our  desire to talk with our father, to find out what he’d done on his trip, it was hard to keep our eyes open. We fell asleep in that back seat far too quickly for our own liking, but then, we  _were_ tired.

I don’t remember doing much dreaming in the back of the Beetle. Harry and our father probably had a bit of conversation about what had happened and what he’d planned. I remembered the gist of the conversation from my past life, but I wasn’t sure how it’d change here. It didn’t matter. If Harry had killed Corpsetaker here, then his guilt for that explained what had been eating at him the past few days. It was the right thing to do, but flat-out killing someone in cold blood wasn’t an easy choice to make. Heck, it probably had been eating at him the entire year.

I was glad that I hadn’t had to make that choice yet. I hoped I never had to.

The next thing I remember was Harry touching my shoulder followed by Molly’s. The two of us jerked awake, and blinked, looking around.

“Where?” Molly asked.

I think I was a little quicker on the uptake,  especially since it was Harry that woke us . “Harry’s.  Why didn’t you just drop us off  with Daddy , Harry?”

“There’s a bit more we need to talk about,” he said. “Come on.”

We got out of the car, and Harry disabled the wards on his apartment. He led us inside, and the biggest difference we noticed was the fact that the place was clean. Harry’s housekeeping cheats were just plain unfair.

“You should probably sit down,” Harry said, gesturing toward the couch.

We did, and as Harry sat down in the chair across from us, Mister rubbed against our legs. We reached down and scratched the cat’s head a few times.

I shook my head after a second, and with a gesture and a mutter of “ _Flickum bicus_ ,” I lit Harry’s fireplace  and a few of the candles. We needed a little bit of light. “What did you want to discuss, Harry?”

“Faith,” Harry said, his voice a bit chiding. “You know I was going to do that.”

“And she used your spell to do it, Harry,” Molly said. “It’s probably the easiest fire spell we know.”

“Yeah, suppose you’re right,” Harry said. “So, there’s a few things we need to talk about. First is probably how the Council meeting went. I’m sorry about Nelson. I didn’t know the kid was still using, and I hadn’t heard that he died until we got there.”

Molly shivered. “I was planning on breaking it off with him anyway, but.. he didn’t deserve to die. Not due to an overdose.”

“Maybe he wouldn’t have been dead if we’d done the other route, but we’d be under the Doom of Damocles then,” I said with a sigh. “And there was no way we were going to intentionally break the Laws.”

“Glad at least some of what I taught you stuck, Grasshopper.” Harry looked to Molly. “It isn’t easy losing someone that you cared about, and I’ll be here for you if you need me.”

Molly smiled, and I felt the love she had for our mentor rise a bit. Honestly, I couldn’t blame her. Harry was worth loving.

“Thanks, Harry,” Molly said, looking down as her cheeks pinked. I could have teased her there, but I chose not to. Frankly, Harry Dresden could have gotten me blushing too if he wanted to.

“Now, there’s the question of where you guys will stay,” Harry said.

“Well, we do have our own apartment,” I said. “When we got back to Chicago, we managed to get it for ourselves with a little bit of help. We’ve got rent paid up through next year, but we’ll need to get something going for beyond that point.”

Harry nodded. “Glad you aren’t couch surfing, as every wizard needs their own space sometimes.”

We nodded, but we stayed silent. There really wasn’t anything to say to that. Harry stood up and walked over to where his bedroom was. We could hear him digging around in a closet, and he brought out a brown robe. One brown robe. He tossed it to us.

“I’ll have to get you two another one, but keep this with you. Now that the Council knows about you, you’ll be with me at Council meetings, and it’s formal attire. They’re sticklers for that sort of thing.” Harry ran a hand through his hair and then rubbed his head. “With Morgan and possibly other Wardens coming to check on your teaching, we need to make sure that you’re getting up to par. So the lessons that we do will be a bit more intense than they were a couple years ago.”

“Wouldn’t expect anything less,” I said with a sigh. “We did leave off at an odd point, and while Molly and I continued as best we could, it wasn’t the same.”

“Bob probably has a lot to say about that,” Molly said, a bit of humor coloring her voice. She then turned a bit serious. “Warden Morgan spoke to us before he left. He’s going to be calling you to arrange when our first assessment should be.”

“Joy,” Harry said dryly and rubbed his head again. “God, I need aspirin and some food. Either of you two hungry?”

“Not exactly,” I said. “I could use something to drink though.”

“I could eat something,” Molly said. “She could too, but she won’t say it.”

“Right, let’s see what I have,” Harry said as he walked over to his kitchenette and checked the icebox and pantry.

While he did that, Molly and I looked at each other. Neither of us were the mess that we would have been if the conclave had been different. If it had been us the conclave had actually been about rather than Parker, we’d have been far worse off. Molly wrapped an arm around me, supporting me a bit as my mind wandered.

_Now, I can see why you’d think the shower thing would be funny to watch,_ Molly sent.  _But we both know Harry better. No matter how lonely he’s been without Susan, we can’t just try and seduce him. Not yet._

I nodded and then winced. Susan. Three years. Poor Harry had been without for three years. Not that Molly or I had gone anywhere near home base, but Harry had. He’d loved Susan Rodriguez. I couldn’t tell him what I remembered just yet. At least not that. Soon though.

Harry finally came back over, carrying a plate holding two hot dogs with buns in one hand and a pair of Coke cans in the other. First he handed us the cans, and then he placed the plate between us before sitting again.

“We’re going to learn a lot more from you, Harry,” I said. “And we’re not going to ruin it.”

“I know. Now, I mentioned that we’d talk about your foreknowledge before,” Harry said. “I guess the biggest question I have about it right now is what exactly do you know?”

“She knows more than she wants to and less than she feels she needs to,” Molly said, squeezing my hand before opening her Coke. “Fai’s always on about how things are her fault if she doesn’t interfere or if she does. About how she feels she isn’t important.”

“Okay. Before I ask more questions,” Harry said. “Official lesson the first. Faith Carpenter, you are _not_ unimportant. If you were, your parents wouldn’t have asked me to find you when you were eight. Your _sister_ wouldn’t have asked for me to find you. Regardless of whatever  the foreknowledge you might have says, you _are_ important to a lot of people.”

I sighed. I knew that Harry was speaking from his heart, thanks to our empathy. He meant every word he said, but… “It’s hard sometimes. I remember how the world would be if I didn’t exist. I remember a past life that witnessed the events of this one through  _your_ eyes, like they were reading your case files or journals.”

There were other things I remembered too, but not all of them were secrets that Harry needed to know. Some of them I wished I hadn’t known.

Harry pursed his lips. I could see the cogs going. “How much of this do you actually remember and to what point?”

“It comes and goes,” I said. “Some things I remember better than others, and sometimes I get reminded of other things. Of course, when things are different, or if you weren’t around to witness them, I don’t remember those events happening.”

“So, in the bit in your memory, you remember the conclave?”

“And I remember Molly getting out with the Doom of Damocles and being your apprentice,” I said. “I remember events that haven’t happened yet, and some that I don’t want to let happen at all if I can avoid it.”

“She never knows how much to act upon her memories,” Molly said. “But seeing as she wasn’t there in the version she remembers, purely by existing, she introduces change.”

Harry frowned, and then he came over to the couch and sat next to me, on the armrest. “Faith, those memories are a burden that I wouldn’t wish upon you. I’d like to discuss them with you in detail if I can.”

“Not here,” I said softly. “Not around Bob. Not with whatever’s on the other side of that portal to the Nevernever being there here.”

“Other side of the portal,” Harry murmured. He hadn’t checked since he moved in, and I remembered that there was _something_ there. Something nasty. I just couldn't recall what for the life of me.

“There are things I’d like to tell you, but there’s probably less prying ears back at our place,” I said.

“My wards are strong,” Harry said. “Nothing can listen in here without me knowing.”

I glanced around the spotless room and shook my head. At the least, his cleaning crew or their protection would hear, and fae treated information as valuable trade fodder. “Our place would be better for it. We’ll give you the address.”

Harry grimaced and then cocked his head slightly as if he were listening to someone who wasn’t here. Ah. Lasciel. She probably wanted to know things too. Harry nodded, and then he said, “Okay. Your place. It can’t be tonight though. Maybe in a couple days?”

“Fine with us,” Molly said, grabbing my hand. “Why not tonight though?”

“Because you have somewhere to be,” Harry said, standing up and grabbing his duster. “If the two of you are ready, we can get going.”

“Yeah, guess so,” I said and then I frowned. “You’re taking us back to our parents’ place, aren’t you?”

Harry blinked. “Oh, come on, is _that_ one of the things you remember?”

I smiled and gave a shrug. “It’s like I learned from a detective or something.”

Harry grumbled as Molly and I followed him out the door to the Beetle. It took a couple of tries, but he managed to get the old bug started, and he drove us to our parents’ place, the lights still on despite the time. Idly I wondered who was awake.

“So...” Molly said. “Why here? I mean, I know Fai said so, but why?”

“For your parents, mostly,” Harry said. “I know I can’t make you move back in; you have your own place. But I know your parents would love for you to stay with them for a few nights a week. Your siblings too.”

I nodded with a small sigh. “Yeah, I suppose they will.”

“So, we’ll be doing lessons four times a week until school starts up again, and then we’ll move lessons to weekends,” Harry said. “I want to see how far the two of you have come since we separated, but I’d also like for you to finish up your schooling.”

“Already done,” we said, with a grin. “Sandy helped us get the tests we needed to finish up high school and graduate. Sure, we didn’t get the chance to walk this year, but we’re pretty sure we can walk next year if our parents want.”

“Ah, good. Maybe we can keep up the four days a week thing during the school year then,” Harry said. “I’m sure I’ll get a contact from the Wardens on when they want to help with your training, so we’ll schedule that then.”

He popped open the Beetle’s door and we piled out of the car after him. We walked up to the front door and gave a polite knock.

The doors opened, and the warmth of our family’s love washed over us. We were home. Our family was here to welcome us home.

**************************

T wo days later, I paced nervously in our studio apartment. Our parents knew why we stayed here, but we’d promised that we’d be over a lot more often. Of course, right now, I was more worried about the person who was coming over. Harry was coming to talk about my past life. I’d avoided telling him anything about it until now, but there was just so much to tell and so much that I wasn’t sure if I should. What could change if I spoke about it? What wouldn’t change even if we had time to prepare? 

“Fai, if you keep pacing like that, you’ll make me sick.”

“What am I going to tell him?” I asked. I shook my head. “What can I tell him?”

“Just think on what the most important thing he needs to know is, Fai,” Molly said. A rapping came on our front door. She stood up off the bed. “We can take it from there.”

Right. Stars and stones, there was a lot that I could remember, just… not exactly in order. I wasn’t sure exactly what happened when at this point. If I thought on the case file names, I could get snatches, bits of memory on how it was, but that wasn’t the same as if it were fresh. Still, there was something I remembered that Harry needed to know.

Molly opened the door and invited Harry Dresden into our apartment. He gave a look around, taking it in, but he didn’t comment. Instead, he took the proffered seat across from me.

“So, grasshoppers, why am I here?” Harry asked. “Why tell me the information here rather than at home?”

“No Bob, for one,” Molly said. “Don’t want him to get any information that can be used against you if he gets taken.”

“Again,” I said. “Taken again. Like last Halloween where you rode a zombie T-Rex and we missed it due to my… issues.”

“Believe me, Faith, you didn’t want to be there,” Harry said with a shudder. “I wouldn’t have wanted to do to you what I had to do to Luccio’s body. If Corpsetaker had taken either of you… Plus, with your senses...”

I nodded, closing my eyes at the vague memory of a cold-blooded murder. It was the right decision, but it was something that had eaten at Harry. It’d eat at us too if we’d been forced. “I can’t just tell you everything, Harry. I don’t even remember everything. I don’t know what will change and what won’t if I do or don’t keep something secret.”

Harry nodded. “Paradox. Bob mentioned it with the Gatekeeper’s  H indsight. Some things will happen regardless, but how you can be prepared for them will be different.”

I nodded.  Molly came to stand next to me. “Something like that.”  Oh, God, please let it not be something like that. “There’s things you  _should_ know though.”

“Well, I’m ready, Grasshopper,” Harry said. “Go ahead.”

I nodded and  let out a small breath. Harry needed to know this. Of anything I could tell him, of everything I could tell him, he needed to know this.  It would only take seven words, something that would be a constant for Harry. To change a life, all that was required was seven words. Seven words to save a life, to alter the course of another.

Molly squeezed my hand, and I was ready.

“Harry, you and Susan have a daughter.”

(Wish for Wisdom End)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of the final book of Building Faith. There are two planned short stories that bridge between Building Faith and Twinned Thought, but they have yet to be written.
> 
> Yes. Faith's story will continue, but Building Faith was envisioned as a trilogy. I wasn't sure I'd get this far, but now look at it. Year and a half of writing, and I've completed not just one but several stories. I'm very proud of myself.


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